real horror story essay

132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas

Horror stories send shivers down our spines. They are gruesome, shocking, and chilling. Scary stories are meant to horrify us, and there are many ways to make a powerful impact on the reader. The element of surprise is crucial to make the readers’ blood freeze.

There are different types of horror stories. They often deal with terrible murders, supernatural powers, psychopaths, frightening human psychology, and much more.

Horror Writing Prompts List

Although many horror writing prompts and scary ideas have been written, the following 132 horror writing prompts can spark great creativity in aspiring writers of the horror genre.

A family is on a camping trip. The parents are walking with their two children, a daughter and a son. The little boy trips and falls into a dark river. His father jumps to rescue him. Somehow, the boy manages to swim to the surface. The father is nowhere to be found. When the mother gets a hold of the boy, she can’t recognize him. She tries holding him, but the moment she touches his wet body, her hands start burning.
A young girl goes missing in a nearby forest. The whole town is searching for her. Her parents find her sitting and smiling in a cave. Her eyes are completely white.
A woman starts watching a movie late at night. The movie seems all too familiar. Finally, she realizes that it is a movie about her own life and that she might be already dead.
A house finds a way to kill every visitor on its premises.
A child makes her own Halloween mask. She glues a lock of her own hair on her mask. The mask comes to life and threatens to take over the girl’s body.

While digging in her backyard, an old lady discovers an iron chest. She opens it and finds a pile of old photographs of her ancestors. All of them are missing their left eye.
A priest is trying to punish God for the death of his sister. He is getting ready to burn down the church when supernatural forces start to torture him.
Every year, a woman goes to the cemetery where her husband is buried, and when she looks at his tombstone, she notices her own name carved into it.
A woman puts a lipstick on in the bathroom when she hears a demonic voice saying to her: “Can’t you see?”
A mysterious child psychiatrist promises parents to cure their children if they give him a vile of their blood.
A group of 10 friends decide to rent an old English castle for the weekend. The ghosts are disturbed and seek their pound of flesh.
A photographer travels to an Indian reservation for his next project. He starts taking photos, but there are only shadows in the places where people should have been.

A young married couple decides to renovate an abandoned psychiatric hospital and turn it into a hotel. Everything is going well until their first guest arrives.
Three sisters are reunited for the reading of their grandmother’s will. She has left them a diamond necklace, but they have to fight psychologically and physically for it.
An old woman pretends to be lost and asks a young woman to help her get home. She offers them a cup of tea and drugs them. When the women wake up, they are chained in the basement. The old woman gives them tools and boards so that they can build their own coffin. If they refuse, she inflicts pain on them.
A mysterious stranger with a glass eye and a cane commissions a portrait. When the portrait is finished, the painter turns it into stone.
A little girl’s sister lives with a monster in the closet. She exits the closet on her sister’s birthday.
The demons under the nuclear plant get released after an explosion and start terrorizing the families of people who work at the plant.
A woman gets trapped in a parallel universe where every day, she dies horribly in different ways.
A cannibal hunts for pure children’s hearts, hoping they will bring him eternal youth.
A politician hides his weird sister in the attic. She’s had her supernatural powers after their family home burned to the ground.
A 16-year-old girl wakes up on a stone-cold table surrounded by people in black and white masks. They chant and start leaning forward. All of them carry carved knives.

A boy hears screaming from his parents’ bedroom. He jumps and hides under his bed. Suddenly, everything becomes quiet. A man wearing army boots enters his room. He drags the boy from under the bed and says: “We’ve been searching for you for 200 years.”
A husband and his wife regain consciousness only to see each other tied to chairs, facing each other. A voice on the radio tells them to kill the other. Otherwise, they would kill their children.
A mysterious altruist gives a kidney to a young man who has the potential to become a leading neuroscientist. After a year, the altruist kills the young man because he proves to be an unworthy organ recipient. The following year, the mysterious altruist is a bone marrow donor.
A group of friends play truth or dare. Suddenly, all the lights go out, and in those ten seconds of darkness, one of the group is killed.
A young man becomes obsessed with an old man living opposite his building. The young man is convinced that the old man is the embodiment of the devil and starts planning the murder.
Concerned and grieving parents bring their 8-year-old son to a psychiatrist after their daughter’s accident, believing that the boy had something to do with her death.
A woman is admitted to a hospital after a car crash. She wakes up after three months in a coma, but when she tries to speak, she can’t utter a sound. When the nurse sees that she is awake, she calls a doctor. The last thing the woman remembers is hearing the doctor say: “Today is your lucky day,” right before four men in black robes take her out.
A small-town cop becomes obsessed with a cold case from 1978. Three girls went missing after school, and nobody has seen them since. Then, one day, in 2008, three girls with the same names as those in 1978 went missing. The case is reopened.

Scary story ideas for a psychological horror

After his parents’ death, a cardiologist returns to his small town, where everyone seems to lead a perfect life. This causes a disturbance in the idyllic life of the people since none of them has a heart.
A man is kidnapped from his apartment at midnight and brought to a large private estate. He is told that he will be a human prey and that ten hunters with guns will go after him. He is given a 5-minute head start.
A strange woman in labor is admitted to the local hospital. Nobody seems to recognize her. She screams in agony. A black smoke fills in the entire hospital. After that, nobody is the same. A dark lord is born.
A young girl finds her grandmother’s gold in a chest in the attic, although she isn’t allowed to go there by herself. She touches the gold, and she starts seeing horrible visions involving her grandmother when she was younger.
An anthropologist studies rituals involving human sacrifice. She slowly begins to accept them as necessary.
A family of four moves into an old Victorian home. As they restore it, more and more people die suddenly and violently.

An old nurse has lived next door to a family that doesn’t get older. Their son has remained to be a seven-year-old boy.
A girl wakes up in her dorm and sees that everybody sleepwalks in the same direction. She acts as if she has the same condition and follows them to an underground black pool where everybody jumps.
A bride returns to the same bridge for 50 years, waiting for her husband-to-be to get out of the water.
An old woman locks girls’ personalities in a forever-growing collection of porcelain dolls. Parents of the missing girls are in agony, and they finally suspect something. When they tell the police, their claims are instantly dismissed.
A chemistry teacher disfigures teenagers who remind him of his childhood bullies. One day, he learns that the new student in his school is the son of his childhood archenemy.
A girl starts digging tiny holes in her backyard. When her mother asks her what she is doing, the girl answers: “Mr. Phantom told me to bury my dolls tonight. Tomorrow night I am going to bury our dog. And then, you, mother.”

Twin brothers were kidnapped and returned the next day. They claim that they can’t remember anything. The following night, the twin sisters disappear.
A boy has a very realistic dream about impending doom, but nobody believes him until, during a storm, all the birds fall dead on the ground.
Room 206 is believed to be haunted, so hotel guests never stay in it. One day, an old woman arrives at the hotel and asks for the key to room 206. She says that she was born there.
A genius scientist tries to extract his wife’s consciousness from her lifeless body and insert it into an imprisoned woman who looks just like his wife.
Two distinguished scientists developed a new type of virus that attacks their brains and turns them into killing machines.
A woman steps out of her house only to find four of her neighbors dead at her doorstep. Little does she know that she isn’t supposed to call the police.
A bachelor’s party ends with two dead people in the pool. Both of them are missing their eyes.
A young woman wearing a black dress is holding a knife in her hand and threatening to kill a frightened man. She is terrified because she does not want to kill anybody, but her body refuses to obey her mind.
A strange religious group starts performing a ritual on a playground. The children’s hearts stop beating.
A woman discovers that her niece has done some horrible crimes, so she decides to poison her. Both of them take the poison, but only the aunt dies.

Free Small decorative ghost in white cape hanging on tree sprig on blurred background in autumn park during holiday celebration in daylight Stock Photo

A man encounters death on his way to work. He can ask three questions before he dies. He makes a quick decision.
An older brother kills his baby sister because he wants to be an only child. When he learns that his mother is pregnant again, he decides to punish her.
A husband and his wife move to a new apartment. After a week, both of them kill themselves. They leave a note saying: “Never again.”
A man is trying to open a time portal so that he can kill his parents before he is ever conceived.
A famous conductor imprisons a pianist from the orchestra and makes him play the piano while he tortures other victims as musicians. Every time the pianist makes a mistake, the conductor cuts of a finger from his victims.
A popular French chef is invited by a mysterious Japanese sushi master for dinner. A powerful potion makes the French chef fall asleep. He wakes up horrified to learn that he is kept on a human farm, in a cage.
A nuclear blast turns animals into blood-thirsty monsters.
A mysterious bug creeps under people’s skin and turns them into the worst version of themselves.
A kidnapper makes his victims torture each other for his sheer pleasure.
Four friends are invited to spend the afternoon in an escape room. A man’s voice tells them that they have won a prize. They happily accept and enter the escape room. They soon realize that the room was designed to reflect their worst nightmares.

Two sisters have been given names from the Book of the Dead. Their fates have been sealed, so when they turn 21, dark forces are sent to bring them to the underground.
A mother-to-be starts feeling severe pain in her stomach every time she touches a Bible. Despite the fear for her own life, she starts reading the New Testament out loud.
A literature professor discovers an old manuscript in the college library. He opens it in his study, and suddenly, a black raven flies through the window.
You are the Ruler of a dystopian society. You kill every time your control is threatened.
You are an intelligent robot who shows no mercy to humanity.
You are a promising researcher who discovers that all the notorious dictators have been cloned.
A nomad meets a fakir who tells him that he will bring agony to dozens of people unless he kills himself before he transforms into a monster.
A most prominent member of a sect goes to animal shelters to find food for the dark forces.
A man hires unethical doctors to help him experience clinical death and then bring him back to life after a minute. Little does he know that one minute of death feels like an eternity full of horrors.
You travel home to visit your parents for the holidays. Everything seems normal until you realize that demons have taken over their consciousness.
A mysterious woman moves into your apartment building. One by one, all of the tenants start hallucinating that monsters are chasing them and jump to their own deaths.
Divorced parents are kidnapped together with their son. Both of the parents have been given poison, but there is only one antidote. The boy needs to decide which parent gets to be saved. He has 30 seconds to make that decision.
A patient with a multiple-personality disorder tells you that you are one of six characters.
You wake up in bed that is a bloodbath.

Free Man Wearing Black Mask And Hoodie Jacket Stock Photo

The Government abducts children with genius IQ and trains them to fight the horrors in Area 51.
A woman who has just given birth at her home is told that the baby is predestined to become the leader of the greatest demonic order in the country.
A man signs a document with his blood to relinquish his body to a sect.
A woman enters a sacred cave in India and disappears for good.
A man opens his eyes in the middle of his autopsy while the coroner is holding his heart.
You look outside the windows in your house only to see that the view has changed and there is black fog surrounding you.
The gargoyles from Notre Dame have come to life, and they start terrorizing Paris.
Somebody rings your doorbell. You open the door, and a frightened girl with bloody hands is standing at your doorstep. “You’re late,” you reprimand her.
You wake up in the middle of the night after a frightful nightmare, so you go to the kitchen to get a glass of water. You turn on the light, and a person looking like your identical twin is grinning and pointing a knife at you.
A renowned book editor receives a manuscript elegantly written by hand. The title grabs her attention, and she continues reading page after page. When she finishes, the manuscript spontaneously starts burning, and the editor is cursed forever.
The last thing you remember before losing consciousness is fighting a shady Uber driver.
You find yourself in a cage in the middle of a forest and black mythological harpies hovering above the cage.
A woman wants to quit smoking, so she visits a therapist who is supposed to help her with the use of hypnosis. She goes under, and when she wakes up, she feels like a born killer.
Five hikers get stranded during a horrible storm. One of them kills the weakest and starts burning his body.
A mother goes in to the nursery to check up on the baby and discovers that the baby is missing and, in her place, there is a baby doll.

Horror story ideas about a serial killer

A killer is willing to pay a large sum of money to the family of a volunteering victim. A cancer patient contacts the killer. The killer ends up dead.
The sacred river in a remote Asian village fills up with blood. The last time that happened, all the children in the village died.
A tall, dark, and handsome stranger invites a blind woman for a romantic date in his botanical garden. The garden is full of black roses in which women’s souls have been trapped. He tells her that she will stay forever with him in his garden.
A frightened man is trying to lead a werewolf into a trap and kill him with the last silver bullet.
An architect designs houses for the rich and famous. What he doesn’t show them is that he always leaves room for a secret passageway to their bedrooms, where they are the most vulnerable.
A man’s DNA was found on a horrible crime scene, and he has been charged with murder in the first degree. He adamantly negates any involvement in the crime that has been committed. What he doesn’t know is that he had a twin brother who died at birth.
Every passenger on the Orient Express dies in a different and equally mysterious way.
A magician needs a volunteer from the audience in order to demonstrate a trick involving sawing a person in half. A beautiful woman steps on the stage. The magician makes her fall asleep, and then he performs the trick. In the end, he disappears. People in the audience start panicking when they notice the blood dripping from the table. The magician is nowhere to be found. The woman is dead.
A mother discovers that her bright son is not human.
Specters keep terrorizing patients in a psychiatric hospital, but nobody believes them.

A man’s mind is locked into an immovable body. This person is being tortured by a psychopath who kills his family members in front of him, knowing that he is in agony and can’t do anything to save them.
A bride-to-be receives a DVD via mail from an unknown sender. She plays the video and, disgusted, watches a pagan ritual. The people are wearing masks, but she recognizes the voice of her husband-to-be.
A man turns himself to the police, although he hasn’t broken the law. He begs them to put him in prison because he had a premonition that he would become a serial killer.
Jack the Ripper is actually a woman who brutally kills prostitutes because her own mother was a prostitute.
A ticking noise wakes her up. It’s a bomb, and she has only four minutes to do something about it.
After a horrible car crash, a walking skeleton emerges from the explosion.
A world-famous violinist virtuoso uses music to summon dark forces.
A philosopher is trying to outwit Death in order to be granted immortality. He doesn’t know that Death already knows the outcome of this conversation.
A beautiful but superficial woman promises a demon to give him her virginity in exchange for immortality. Once the demon granted her wish, she refused to fulfill her end of the deal. The demon retaliated by making her immortal but not eternally youthful.
A voice starts chanting spells every time somebody wears the gold necklace from Damask.
Three teenagers beat up a homeless man. The next day all of them go missing.

Scary story ideas and horror story writing prompts

Thirteen tourists from Poland visit Trakai Island Castle in Vilnius. Their bodies are found washed up the next morning. They are wearing medieval clothes.
A group of extremists ambush the vehicle in which the head of a terrorist cell is transported and rescue him. They go after anybody who was involved in his incarceration.
A hitman is hired to kill a potential heart donor.
A man is attacked by the neighbor’s dog while trying to bury his wife alive.
A woman disappears from her home without a trace. He husband reports her missing. The police start to suspect the husband when they retrieve some deleted messages.
After moving to a new house, all the family members have the same nightmares. Slowly, they realize that they might be more than nightmares.
A psychopath is drugging his wife, pushing her to commit suicide so that he can collect the life insurance.
A woman loses her eyesight overnight. Instead, she starts having premonitions.
A vampire prefers albino children.
A man commits murders at night and relives the agony of his victims during the day.
A black horse carriage stops in front of your house. A hand wearing a black glove makes an inviting gesture. Mesmerized, you decide to enter the carriage.
Demons rejuvenate by eating kind people’s hearts.
People are horrified to find all of the graves dug out the morning after Halloween.
Men start jumping off buildings and bridges after hearing a mysterious song.
A voice in your head tells you to stop listening to the other voices. They were not real.
A severed head is hanging from a bridge with a message written in the victim’s blood.
A delusional man brings his screaming children to a chasm.
A 30-year-old woman learns that a baby with the same name as her died at the local hospital 30 years ago.
A vampire donates his blood so that a child with special brain powers can receive it.
A teenager is determined to escape his kidnapper by manipulating him into drinking poison. He doesn’t stop there.

Final Words

Write a good horror story with scary story ideas

The 132 scary story ideas will help you take a deep dive into the human psyche. These horror story prompts will make you a seasoned writer and help you captivate readers. So, get ready to write a good horror story with unique writing prompts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s take a look at the following questions and answers:

What is a good way to start horror writing prompts?

To grab readers’ attention, craft the beginning of your horror story around an active scene featuring characters in the thick of an action. Introduce the central conflict and sprinkle tantalizing hints of danger or the unknown, such as clues about an accident or murder, to create an air of suspense and intrigue.

What are some good scary story ideas?

Effective horror story ideas delve into innate human fears and weaknesses. These fears can manifest as physical threats like monsters or ghosts or as psychological anxieties such as uncertainty or the unraveling of reality.

How can I start writing unique horror stories?

To craft a spine-tingling horror story, delve into the emotions that haunt your audience. Fear thrives in the unknown and the unforeseen, so weave these aspects seamlessly into your narrative. Craft a haunting atmosphere or chilling plot through vivid descriptions that linger in the reader’s mind. Gradually intensify the tension to keep them captivated and quivering on the brink of terror.

Is it easy to write on scary story prompts?

If you’re a horror enthusiast, you likely have some scary story ideas for your own screenplay. However, crafting effective horror stories isn’t straightforward. To truly scare your audience, your scary story must connect with their most primal fears.

What are cliches to avoid while writing scary story ideas?

To create effective horror stories, don’t rely solely on common tropes like haunted houses or creepy children. Instead, find unique angles or reinterpretations to keep your readers engaged in your scary story. Avoid overused scary story ideas unless you can add a novel twist. Remember that the goal of a horror story is to surprise and disturb the audience, making it crucial to avoid predictability and create an unsettling experience for your readers.

Published in Writing Prompts

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101 Horror Writing Prompts That Are Freaky As Hell

Looking for some scary story ideas for your next writing project?

Sometimes, a good scary prompt idea is all you need to get started on a dark story your readers won’t be able to put down.

And that is the goal. What’s a horror story without white-knuckle suspense?

You want your readers at the edge of their seats, unable to stop though they know something bad is about to happen.

You also want to reward them for reading to the end and leave them wanting more.

So, how can this collection of horror writing prompts help with that?

What Are the Main Elements of Horror Writing?

List of most common horror themes and tropes to write on .

66 Horror Writing Prompts

Halloween Writing Prompts

Mystery writing prompts, psychological horror story ideas, “the monster you know” story ideas, ghost story writing prompts, funny horror story ideas, horror story ideas.

Every good story needs an idea that takes root in your imagination and doesn’t let go. Horror stories in particular need to affect you a certain way. If they don’t sound an alarm in your head, they won’t sound one in the heads of your readers, either.

They need to reach into your psyche, take a scrap of memory, and turn it into something that would keep you up at night.

And as you’ve no doubt read already, “No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”

Look through the prompts that follow, and choose one that calls out to you and lingers in your imagination.

Paint a picture in your mind of the characters involved. Give yourself a reason to invest in them by giving each one some interesting backstory.

Then set a timer and write.

Since Earl Horace Walpole’s gothic horror The Castle of Otranto hit shelves in 1764, English readers have clamored for dark plots that excite primitive instincts and tickle our fear bones.

Many horror authors leverage shadowy impulses by sprinkling stories with uncomfortable happenings and gruesome fatalities.

But that’s not all it takes to write within the genre, begging the question: What are the main elements of horror? Traditionally, there are five: suspense, fear, violence, gore, and the supernatural.

Suspense : Creating anxious tension is a critical component of horror as it keeps the audience glued to the story. They need to find out what happens! Traditionally, suspense is valued as a sophisticated form of horror, and building it well is a skill.
Fear : Confronting fearful things is a powerful emotion with chemical reactionary consequences, making it a hallmark of horror writing.
Violence : Savagery is scary because it’s inextricably linked to death and pain — two of the four great human fears.
Gore : Brains and guts are a cornerstone of classic horror. For better or worse, our neural pathways light up when confronted with intestines, brain matter, and gushing fluids. Successful horror writers keep readers and watchers engaged by deploying gore effectively.
Supernatural: The main difference between “true crime” and “horror” is a supernatural element. While horror stories draw people in with realism, they usually feature an emotional detachment valve in the form of an explicit or implicit otherworldly presence.

Vampires, ghosts, zombies, and murderers are big-picture mainstays of the horror genre. But what are some other, more detailed tropes associated with scary storytelling?

Babysitter Alone in Big House: The naive babysitter trope is oft-repeated because it works. The sitter acts as a stand-in for the reader or audience in that, like you, they’re vulnerable. Horror-sitters are the character conduit through which readers and viewers can experience the impending fear.
Manipulative Vampires: Maybe it’s their piercing eyes, snappy attire, or mysterious penchant for the “nightlife.” Whatever the case, people stan vampires, and sensual and manipulative ones are an incredibly effective horror character trope.
Ghost-Haunted House: Ghost-haunted houses are a recurring horror motif. Whether you approach it from a traditional or modern angle is up to you. Both can work.
Creepy Kid: In real life, it’s kind to see all kids as precious and special, no matter their quirks. But when it comes to Horror World, creepy kids are a dime a dozen! Sometimes they’re the main attractions or “red herrings” (which we’ll get to more below); other times, they’re supernatural catalysts that serve as a story’s MacGuffin. Whichever the case, unnerving kids go a long way when devising a disturbing scene and fomenting suspense.
The Nonbeliever: Most horror stories have at least one character whose lack of fear or faith (in the story’s “supernatural” element) lands them six feet under.
The Red Herring: A “red herring” is a false clue. The term dates back to the 1400s to describe a culinary preparation for fish, but the first known use as a euphemism for “distraction” appeared in 1884.
Isolation: Few things frighten people more than being all alone while danger looms. As such, isolation can be a helpful trope when crafting horror stories.
Graveyard Chase: A well-conceived chase around a graveyard is another horror mainstay that continues to deliver. Try adding a twist to modernize the trope.
Distorting Mirrors: Whether a single reflecting glass or a full-on maze, using mirrors as a motif is a tangible and effective way to signal distortion.
Aliens and Cultists: The human psyche can’t resist rubbernecking when confronted with the possibility of aliens and the sociopathic underbelly of cults. Resultantly, they work well as engaging frameworks for horror stories.

101 Horror Writing Prompts

Whether you’re writing for a special occasion or just to experiment with the horror genre, any of the scary story prompts in the following groups should get you started.

Go with your gut on this one, and choose an idea that feels both familiar and provocative. Then give it a go!

1. A mysterious gift from an estranged aunt arrives on Halloween with a crystal ball and a note addressed only to you, her godchild.

2. One of the trick-or-treaters bears an uncanny resemblance to your departed sibling and repeats that sibling’s last words before picking your sibling’s favorite candy bar.

3. On Halloween night, you find a box at your door that contains a strange note and a little something from each of the people who have hurt you in the past year.

4. On this Halloween night, your guinea pig won’t stop running in circles, and your dog keeps staring at the door, emitting a low growl.

5. You run out for candy on Halloween afternoon to find the streets empty and the store abandoned. A single car cruises into the lot and pulls into the spot next to yours.

6. Every time you went to answer the doorbell, no one was there. The next day, you heard about the missing children. The worst part? Your kids spent Halloween with your ex and were supposed to come trick-or-treating last night.

7. You arrive home on Halloween to a large package from your new boss, who’d bought every piece of your favorite candy from local stores. The note reads, “Save some for me.”

8. You’re watching TV on Halloween night when your show is interrupted by a faintly familiar someone declaring their love for you and saying they’ve watched you all your life.

9. You come home to find a stranger walking through your home, sipping your wine and admiring your collected antiquities. They startle at your approach and act as though you’re the intruder.

10. The night before Halloween, you have a dream in which you wake up to see a dark shape standing outside your closet. You wake up screaming with your hands around your spouse’s throat.

11. Election day looms, and Halloween feels more ominous than ever. You’ve kept the lights off, but that doesn’t stop one visitor from leaving a note: “Knew you lived here.”

12. Your best friend has gone missing, and someone keeps leaving small reminders of them in your mailbox. You see someone approach to deliver something else, and your heart nearly stops when you recognize them.

13. You’ve always wanted a dog, so when a rain-soaked mutt shows up on your front step, you let him in. Unfortunately, something else hitched a ride.

14. Someone moves into the apartment next door and starts playing loud music at night. You call the police, who find the guy dead holding a note with your name and address.

15. Someone keeps replacing items in your home with different objects that look vaguely familiar. No one else has a key to your home, and there are no signs of forced entry.

16. You bake some cookies to share with the new neighbor, but the terrified woman backs away from the plate, shaking her head. Someone from inside calls out, “I’ll have those.”

17. Someone at work has offered to do a tarot card spread for you, and you politely decline. You find a single tarot card in your mailbox when you return home.

18. You don’t remember wandering alone on a country road as a small child, but someone does. And he wants to make sure you’re not around to testify against him.

.ugb-360683b .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#625656 !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-360683b .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#625656 !important}.ugb-360683b .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-360683b .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 19. Someone has gotten to your laundry before you and left it neatly folded in piles on top of the dryer. A note reads, “For more TLC, knock on #303.”

20. The window of your apartment leads to a fire escape, but twice you’ve come home to find it open. Nothing is missing. But someone keeps leaving a ring on your kitchen table.

21. You order a Christmas wreath for your door and the company sends you a package with money instead. The note reads, “Keep half. I’ll pick up the rest in 72 hours.”

22. A child knocks on your door and tells you you’ll be visited by three people that night. One of them will show you your future. The child’s face reminds you of someone.

23. Your best friend is dating a woman who seems familiar to you — and not in a good way. Turns out, she’s got a bad feeling about you, too, and she warns your friend.

24. You receive a surprise delivery of a holiday flower arrangement with a note from someone who went to jail for assault. The message reads, “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

25. An abuser from your past has written you a long letter of apology, and you agree to meet them for coffee. You find your favorite coffee place deserted — on Black Friday.

26. You broke up with your sweetheart when he lied about taking you to the prom and begged you to run away with him so he could escape an abusive home. He’s back.

27. An old friend, who had tried to warn you about an ex-boyfriend years ago, has come back to town to run a diner. Within a week, known bullies start disappearing.

28. For the past three dates, the guy you met ended up dead and posed as if proposing. A note on each one’s empty chest cavity reads, “My heart belongs to [your name].”

.ugb-006bdc4 .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#762f2f !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-006bdc4 .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#762f2f !important}.ugb-006bdc4 .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-006bdc4 .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 29. You’re with a friend at the home of the guy she’s dating. In the bathroom, you find a box with jewelry for almost every birthstone. Yours is the only one missing. You hear a scream.

30. Everyone keeps telling you your memories can’t be trusted. You’re safe with them. They’ll protect you. But you haven’t left the house in years.

31. You thought it was cute when your little sister wanted to wear your aunt’s high heels and pose with a hand on her hip. But your sister had an uncanny way with accidents.

32. You never expected to win the ‘57 Chevy from the church raffle. Neither did the car’s owner, who immediately tried to buy it back. He didn’t respond well to “No, thanks.”

33. Every time you saw anything like “Tornado Warning” or “Flash Flood” in the news, you knew someone would end up dead. And your ex would blame the weather.

34. You come home to a dozen roses from a guy who’s been telling his friends you’re dating, and you get angry. For some reason, though, everyone you know is on his side.

35. Your “Secret Santa” leaves an expensive bottle of wine with a note, “Drink me.” You call a familiar number and hear the phone ring on the other side of your door.

36. Your dad has a secret known only to his twin brother, who mysteriously disappeared but left a note with a box of his belongings in the attic. You take it with you when you leave.

37. You just broke up with the person who’s catering your best friend’s wedding. They also made the cake.

38. Some of your in-laws have decided to deliver their sibling from you. When they cross the line, you make a promise to them and to your spouse. One by one, they disappear.

39. Your health is steadily declining, and you don’t know why. Neither do your doctors, who test for the usual health issues and find nothing. Then someone calls to warn you.

40. Your estranged father sends you a porcelain doll — the one he swears you told him you wanted. It has the face and hair of your missing mother. And her eyes are glued open.

41. You’ve just told your family you’re asexual, and they seem to accept it. Out of the blue, the handsome guy next door shows up to ask you out, and your parents quietly nod.

42. A cop pulls you over for driving a few miles over the speed limit, tells you to get out of your car, slams you against the hood and whispers in your ear, “This is from your ex.”

43. You emailed your fiancé for months before meeting him for the first date. Now, you’re getting strange phone calls from someone claiming to be his wife and telling you to run.

44. You stood numb at the coffin of a close friend and flinched when your father rested a hand on your shoulder. “Had to be done,” he whispered. “Remember the bigger picture.”

45. A small package bears the name of your sister, who died five years ago. It contains a pendant that matches her own and a note asking you to activate it by chanting, “Sisters Forever.”

46. Your elderly neighbors died on the same day of an apparent suicide pact. In their will, they left their pug to you, along with a small box of what they called “magical items.”

47. You receive a note penned by your best friend, who died in a car accident the month before, His parents had found it in his room and hand-delivered it, barely looking at you.

.ugb-c65fb79 .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#3b492e !important;border-radius:50px !important;text-align:center !important}.ugb-c65fb79 .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#3b492e !important}.ugb-c65fb79 .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff} 48. You pounce on a new opening in the apartment building close to your favorite coffee place. The first night there, you wake up to ghostly shapes surrounding your bed.

49. At your first slumber party, your friend’s older brother surprised you during a late-night run to the bathroom. He died a decade later in prison. Now you see him in your dreams.

50. Your home is the high-tech brainchild of your best friend, who bequeathed it to you (rather than to his wife). It anticipates your every need and desire.

51. You’ve been having dreams about a door that shows up in your room. In one, you walk through it and see someone you love being murdered . You warn them the next day.

52. You’re the lone survivor of a horrific train crash, and everywhere you go, you see the ghosts of some of the passengers. Some have told you the crash was no accident.

53. You’re looking through your mother’s possessions when a note slips out of the book she’d been reading, warning you about “the ghost who runs this house.”

54. Your new boyfriend is obsessed with ancient artifacts, but when something hitches a ride on his latest find, you witness disturbing changes in his behavior.

55. Your life is already complicated when your boss asks you to stay at his home to care for his dog while he’s away. You soon learn the house is as mischievous as the dog.

56. You’re an editor for the college literary journal, and you’ve been getting poetic hate mail from a student who’s angry you didn’t choose their poems for the latest issue.

57. Your favorite neighbor is a trans woman named Lani who looks out for you. She warns you about a guy down the hall, who keeps trying cheesy pick-up lines to get you to smile.

58. Your co-workers tease you about your weight gain. One is found dead in the bathroom, her mouth stuffed with candy. Everyone but the custodian suspects you.

59. An anonymous admirer sends you a singing telegram with a chilling question. Now you have less than 24 hours to sing your answer in a public square, with a flash mob.

60. You sign up for wine deliveries but are disappointed by the first bottle you open and taste. On the label, you find a crass, insulting note from an old enemy.

61. Your date finds out your BFF is asexual and starts asking intrusive and insensitive questions. When your friend shuts him down, he insults and warns you both.

62. You’re working the dinner rush, and a customer loudly insists on changing her order the moment you deliver it. Someone quietly follows her as she storms out the door.

63. You’re having an open house for your new shop, and you catch a customer shoplifting. She says, “I was told to come in here and take these. You’re being watched.”

64. You arrive at your new house, and the keys from the realtor don’t work. Someone answers the door with a disarming smile. “So, you’re here about the room? Come in!”

65. Your date is going well until you reveal that you have a dog. “I’m not really a dog person,” you hear. When you get a bad feeling and end the date, things get messy.

66. Your journal goes missing, and within a week, a goofy, adorable guy starts showing up at your usual stops. He seems surprised to see you, but something isn’t quite right.

Creepy Writing Prompts

67. The old tunnel had been blocked off for as long as anyone could remember, but late at night, you could still hear the faint screams echoing from deep within.

68. As you walk past the abandoned house on your way home from school, you notice one of the curtains move slightly in an upstairs window, but the house has been empty for years.

69. You wake up suddenly in the middle of the night and see two small handprints on the foggy bathroom mirror that are far too small to belong to anyone in your family.

70. Every night when you go to sleep, you feel an uncomfortable pricking sensation on your skin, yet every morning, you find strange symbols carved into your arms that you don’t remember making.

71. While exploring the attic, you find an old doll that looks eerily like you did as a child, and when you pick it up, its eyes suddenly open.

72. The scraping sound from the closet stops whenever you turn on the light, but it always returns as soon as the room goes dark again.

73. Every time you glance in the mirror, your reflection behaves slightly differently than you do – blinking at the wrong time or moving too late.

74. You wake up covered in mud and scratches with no memory of where you’ve been all night, and the soles of your shoes are worn through as if you had walked for miles.

75. Lately, your pets have refused to go into certain rooms of your house, but you have no idea what frightens them so badly about those areas.

76. You discover a trap door hidden under an old Persian rug in your basement and shining a light into it reveals a set of footsteps descending into the darkness below.

77. You wake up one morning to find all the mirrors in your home have been turned around to face the wall, even though you live alone.

78. Your television is switched on in the dead of night, the static slowly resolving into shapes, and what looks back at you from the screen makes your blood run cold.

79. You keep finding sticky notes around your house with messages written on them in unfamiliar handwriting, like “GET OUT” or “I’M WATCHING YOU SLEEP.”

80. Every time you look at a clock, the time is exactly 3 minutes slow, though all the clocks in your home are set correctly and keep perfect time when others view them.

81. On your way home, you notice a figure standing motionless at the end of the street, staring directly at your house with its face hidden in the shadows of its hooded robe.

82. Your dog comes running inside with its leash still attached but hanging limply, yet when you call the number on the leash’s tag, your own cell phone starts ringing from within your house.

83. Your computer camera activates unexpectedly while you’re working, and you see your own bedroom behind you from an impossible angle near the ceiling, suggesting someone is watching through the camera right now.

84. You hear your name called out softly in an empty room, and even though the voice sounds familiar, you live alone, and you know no one else is inside.

Spooky Writing Prompts

85. Every night when you lie in bed, you hear the floorboards outside your room creaking as if someone is pacing back and forth, but every time you quickly open the door to check, the hallway is empty.

86. While exploring the woods behind your new house, you discover a crumbling old stone well, and when you peer down into the darkness, you think you see pale faces staring back up at you.

87. Your reflection in mirrors and windows often moves independently, quickly looking away whenever you try to catch it, watching you from impossible angles that don’t align with where you’re standing.

88. An unfamiliar chat window opens on your computer screen with only the message “I can see you through your webcam” written inside it by an unseen sender.

89. Plants within your home have been dying overnight no matter where you place them, the leaves and stems drained of all color as if the life has been completely sucked out.

90. You wake up to find a pile of dead birds on your lawn, their wings broken and necks bent at odd angles as if they crashed directly into the ground from high altitudes.

91. The old paintings hanging on the walls of your recently inherited mansion seem to follow you with their eyes, and occasionally, you notice mysterious new figures added in the backgrounds that disappear by morning.

92. Turning on all the faucets causes blood to drip out instead of water, yet when others in your home check them, the liquid running from the pipes is perfectly clear.

93. You wake from a nightmare convinced someone was standing silently at the foot of your bed, only to find the imprint of two bare feet seared into your bedroom carpet right where the figure was standing.

94. Whenever you look in the bathroom mirror late at night, you see dead relatives standing silently behind you who disappear when you turn around to check if anyone is there.

95. The baby monitor in the nursery suddenly emits a strange crackling sound followed by a singsong voice you don’t recognize whispering your baby’s name over and over.

96. Your shadow appears to have a mind of its own, often following you more slowly or quickly than it should and reaching areas you know your body has not moved to.

97. Photos taken with phones or cameras in and around your home show blurry figures lurking in the background that do not match any of the people in the images.

98. Any writing you leave out overnight – from sticky notes to notebooks – has mysterious reoccurring symbols added in unfamiliar handwriting scattered among the existing text.

99. You wake in the middle of the night to the sound of your locked window being forced open from the outside, but when you jump out of bed to check, it’s closed securely as if nothing happened.

100. From your garden, you can see directly into your neighbor’s bathroom mirror, but instead of the neighbor’s reflection, you swear you sometimes see your own face staring back with an expression you don’t recognize.

101. While searching through the attic in your recently purchased Victorian home, you find an old portrait of a severe-looking woman whose eyes seem to follow you around the room; later that night, you wake to find the same woman standing at the foot of your bed, silently watching you sleep.

How Do You Come Up with Horror Ideas?

Coming up with fresh, frightening ideas is key to crafting an effective horror story. While horror inspirations can spring from ordinary events and observations, it helps to have strategies to unleash your most sinister creativity. Here are some tips for conjuring bone-chilling tales:

Mine your nightmares. Dreams often access our deepest fears. Pay attention to recurring nightmares or startling images from your subconscious, as these can inspire terrifying new monsters or situations.
Twist tropes. Take common horror archetypes like haunted houses, demonic possession, or slashers and put a new spin on them. Surprise readers by changing elements they assume to be familiar.
Extrapolate fears. Think about phobias you or others have, like darkness, insects, or tight spaces. Imagine those fears exponentially intensified to petrifying extremes.
Research real horror. Study disturbing historical events, murders, superstitions, or unexplained phenomena and fictionalize them in a new horror setting.
Observe people. Carefully watch those around you and look for small creepy details in their appearances or behaviors that could be expanded into something sinister.

With an observant eye and inventive mind, creators can find endless inspiration from both mundane moments and their most nightmarish dreams. Putting ordinary things in an ominous light or letting one’s imagination run wild with “what if” scenarios generate the kinds of situations and figures that fuel truly frightening tales.

Pay attention to the world around and inside you, and plumb the depths of your creativity, and you’ll never run short on horror ideas.

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Tags: Fiction , Fiction Writing , Short Story

If you love writing scary stories, this article is for you! Dive in to discover the best 101 horror writing prompts for your next masterpiece. From creepy ghost story ideas to supernatural horror, we’ve covered everything for you.

For Halloween enthusiasts, we have also added a special section of horror story prompts. You can use these prompts for horror stories to craft suspenseful and engaging stories. So let’s get started!

Perfect your spine-chilling tale! Learn more

Horror writing prompts

1) You are accused of beating a man but you have no memory of the incident. You start hearing voices in your head and realize that evil spirits have entered your body.

2) A psychologist suggests a new therapy to a patient after which the patient starts getting scary nightmares.

3) A man insults a circus clown after which the clown commits suicide. The clown’s ghost now haunts the man.

4) A hunter sees a blood-sucking vampire in Albanian forests and flees to save his life.

5) A volcano erupts near the Pacific Ocean and releases a wicked force living at the bottom of the volcano.

6) A girl finds an ancient key and unlocks a box, releasing 20 monsters who had been imprisoned for 500 years.

7) A mother purchases an ancient dollhouse with Chinese dolls for her daughter and realizes that the dolls are haunted by cursed spirits.

8) A strong current pulls a fisherman into the ocean’s deep waters. The fisherman sees a ship and manages to climb into it, only to realize that it is a phantom ship.

9) A boy is followed by the shadow of death everywhere, leading to death wherever he goes.

10) A gardener finds an ancient telephone while digging in the garden and accidentally contacts aliens using that telephone.

11) An explorer discovers a cave and sees a banshee living in the cave. The banshee traps him in the cave.

12) A child breaks a magical snow globe and hears screams. Suddenly there is heavy snowfall and hailstones begin falling hard from the sky.

13) A priest opens a locked room in a church and releases ghosts of dead scientists who want revenge.

14) A thick fog suddenly envelops a tiny village and a wicked witch who feeds on sorrow enters the village. She enchants dead bodies and makes them obey her commands.

15) A girl starts getting dreams of what will happen in her future. To her horror, every dream comes true and she must act before the dream of her death becomes reality.

16) A drunk man throws a stone in the dark and urinates near a tree where a zombie lives. The angry zombie tortures the man.

17) A poacher is haunted by the spirits of animals whose skin he has sold.

18) A woman takes a free lift from a man who is a demon in disguise. Attracted to her, the demon takes her to the land of demons.

19) A museum adds a new artifact to its collection without realizing that the object is cursed and belongs to an ancient tribe. Angry, the tribe performs black magic on all the museum’s employees who must face torture till the artifact is returned to its rightful owners.

20) A girl befriends a stranger on a train who hypnotizes her and she is forced to obey him.

21) A librarian sees a young girl who was supposed to have died in 1913. The young girl asks for the librarian’s help to take revenge against a powerful man. When the librarian refuses, the angry girl unleashes horror into the librarian’s life. The librarian begins seeing blood on the walls and hears creaking sounds, scary footsteps, and a hand that reaches out to kill her.

22) A businessman doesn’t honor the promise he made to a poor man. He suddenly realizes that all the bad incidents that the poor man experienced are now happening to him.

23) One day, you wake up and begin to hear the thoughts of trees, plants, and animals, and echoes start haunting you wherever you go.

24) A government employee visits an orphanage for a survey and finds out how every child is controlled by a satanic cult.

25) A crazy and gifted musician creates an eerie tune that enchants and forces people to kill other people.

26) A group of friends is separated due to a landslide and finds themselves in parallel universes due to the mistake of an inexperienced sorcerer.

27) You enter an abandoned house and the door slams shut on its own. You realize that you are trapped in that house and see a strange yellow light.

28) You find a key to a magical land of history and a dragon follows you from the historical land to the earth.

29) An actress is kidnapped by a witch who wishes to manipulate her and control the world.

30) An investigator who tries to find out the truth behind a college student’s murder realizes that the boy invoked supernatural forces before dying. Now, the investigator must stop the supernatural forces from killing him and other humans.

31) A scientist discovers a door to the land of memories and accidentally damages the memory of his identity, forgetting everything he knows about himself.

32) A boy is cruel to a rat and other rats angry at his cruelty, drag him inside a big black hole.

33) A bed bug sucks the blood of a magical witch and starts growing larger.

34) A magician has the rare gift of bringing dead people in paintings to life. Chaos spreads after the magician brings Hitler to life by working magic on a painting.

35) A horrible black monster steps out of the Atlantic Ocean and begins eating everything it sees.

36) A teacher finds an old coat that belonged to a demon in the past. Every time he checks the coat pocket, he reads news of people dying. Hours after he reads the notes, the people mentioned in the notes die and blood spots keep appearing on the coat.

37) A beggar walking close to a forest finds a trail of notes and happily picks them up. Later, he realizes that the notes belonged to wedding guests who died in an accident. The ghosts of the wedding guests notice that he has picked up the notes and haunt him.

39) A sorceress trapped in an enchanted mirror manages to control a young girl who pulls her out of the mirror.

40) A team of psychic youths is hired to find and fight a ruthless demon who feeds on despair. They must make a terrible sacrifice to prevent the demon from knowing their darkest secrets.

41) A lady discovers an old well near the flat she is renting. She peeps to see what is inside the well and a half-human, half-animal hand grasps her neck.

42) A journalist arrives at her flat and finds a scary message written in red ink on her mirror. The message reads,”‘I’m coming for you!” and somebody has drawn a smiling face with red ink on the mirror.

43) An angel is given the task of saving the world from a deadly plague. An army of tiny demon bacteria fight the angel and try to force him to go back.

44) A man desperately tries to remove his car which is stuck in a swamp. Suddenly, he sees a muddy, ugly, hairy creature raise its head from the swamp.

45) A camper suddenly sees a little girl sleepwalking with an evil smile on her face and blue sparks flying from her hands.

47) Imagine that Pandora has a human heir called Nymphadora who opens a box she discovers. Tiny creatures that have feelers like needles step out of the box and make an attempt to stop time and the wheel of destiny.

48) You wake up and discover that you are 40 years old whereas the day before, you were just 19.

49) A couple who are hiking enter a village where no one speaks and everyone has pale yellow eyes.

50) A traveler accepts a drink from a tribal and after drinking it, falls into a deep sleep. The next day he realizes that he is in a large cage with animals and the tribals are dancing around the cage.

51) You’re attending a masquerade party in a snowy area where everyone is dressed as animals You see a large, hairy, ape-like animal and recognize that it’s a real Yeti. The Yeti, realizing that you know his true identity wants to kill you.

52) A wicked group of vampires land on Earth with a mission to kill all humans and settle on Earth. They enter your house and want to kill you and your family.

53) A couple has rented a room in a palace to spend the night. While using the elevator, the elevator suddenly stops midway, the light starts flickering and the couple hears screams.

54) An archaeologist discovers a document about cursed gold and becomes obsessed with finding the gold. His quest leads him to the cave where a wicked witch lives.

55) You discover an ancient diary that contains strange incantations. When you read them aloud, Satan appears.

56) An evil spirit enters a city and all dogs start barking without stopping. A dark shadow gradually dims all lights in the city.

57) An injured man finds an old, abandoned clinic and enters the clinic, hoping for treatment. He is confronted by a zombie who has made the clinic its home.

58) A boy presses a magical button that makes him travel in time. Unfortunately, he chooses the wrong time portal and lands in an insane asylum.

59) You see the face of a werewolf at your window’s glass. The werewolf breaks the glass and you have a few seconds to escape.

60) A boy finds a strange red device with a black button in the mud. The boy presses the button upon which, the people who are alive die immediately and dead people start coming to life.

Continue reading to get inspired by our special section of scary story prompts. Browse exciting prompts for horror stories from various genres like dark fantasy, psychological horror, and more!

Scary story prompts

61) Strange things happen to a teenager after he performed planchette with a group of friends for fun. His car stops working, the bus he travels from gets punctured and he is unable to return home.

62) A scientist invents a potion to restore his youth. However, he makes a mistake while adding an ingredient to the potion. Hence, when he drinks the potion, his skin grows deformed, with white patches and thick fur.

63) A horse rider discovers bones in an old stable. When he tries to burn the bones, the bones surprisingly do not burn. Instead, a thick white fog suddenly envelops the stable, and evil spirits emerge from the bones.

64) A sorcerer blurs the difference between dreams and reality. You can’t understand whether you are in a dream or what is happening is real.

65) A woman opens the door and finds a woman claiming to be her aunt. She also shows photographs as proof and the woman allows her ‘aunt’ to enter the house. The aunt then gives the woman a strong potion, drinking and the woman falls into a deep sleep. When the woman wakes up, she realizes that she is in the netherworld and sees beings with no light in their eyes.

66) An alpine skier has a terrible fall from a mountain. A group of nomads see her and forcibly take her to an old temple. They slit her leg with a knife and perform a strange ritual.

67) The last living witch on earth brings a puppet to life. The puppet sucks out all the magic out of the witch and becomes stronger. It uses its power to block the sunlight and kills humans in the dark as a sport.

68) A researcher finds out about a rare tribe that can make themselves invisible and travel with lightning speed. While trying to find the tribe’s descendants, she suddenly is face to face with their guardian who tries to kill her.

69) You enter a house where a psychic man has been staying in secret. When you confront the man, he uses his mind power to enchant all metallic objects, make them airborne, and position them to attack you.

70) You come across a rare animal that can change its shape at will. To your horror, it suddenly changes its shape to look like you and tries to kill you.

71) A boy returns to his remote village after a long time and realizes that all villagers are hypnotized and have black marks on their hands.

72) A lady never invites guests to her house and rarely ventures out of her house. A detective realizes that the lady’s life is manipulated by a cat who is a witch in disguise. The detective must save himself and the lady from the wicked cat.

73) A man finds tapes that his girlfriend gave him before she died. He hears an eerie screeching sound in the background when he plays the tapes. To his horror, he hears the same screeching sound and scary footsteps after he stops playing the tapes.

74) A student finds a hit list of people who will soon be killed. The list was created by a demon in disguise. The demon kidnaps the student to prevent him from telling anyone the truth.

75) A girl hires a tutor to learn Japanese. One day, she realizes that her Japanese teacher transforms into a werewolf every full moon.

76) A journalist finds out about a mysterious spaceship that landed on earth. Suddenly, he has terrible accidents and an invisible force tries to kill him.

77) A 12-year-old child sees a mysterious violet light streak across the sky. Whenever the light shines, somebody dies.

78) An intruder touches an electric fence and is jolted by a strong current. Before his eyes close, he sees an ugly ghoul looking at him.

79) A historian finds out about a rare voodoo practitioner who is the last of an ancient, mystic tribe. He arrives at the voodoo practitioner’s hut only to find the place ransacked and the voodoo practitioner gone. He suddenly sees ghosts floating in the air and hears a grandfather clock laugh menacingly.

80) You meet a strange old man who can read your thoughts and easily manipulate everyone around you.

Now let’s see some scary story writing prompts about Halloween!

Halloween horror prompts

81) Vampires gatecrash a Halloween party and terrified guests are unable to escape.

82) A group of friends decided to have a scavenger hunt on Halloween. Suddenly, all the friends disappear one by one.

83) A giant wakes up from a deep sleep on Halloween and stamps his foot in rage. This leads to an earthquake and all guests at the Halloween party are in danger.

84) You realize that all the incidents you read from a scary Halloween story are happening in real life.

85) You hear an eerie tune on Halloween night and wake up in fright. Suddenly, you see the face of a big black bear outside your window.

86) You accept a dare to visit a haunted house on Halloween. Suddenly, you hear screams and utensils falling in the haunted house.

87) A family decides to punish their extremely naughty son and not celebrate Halloween. On Halloween night, the parents leave home due to an emergency, leaving their naughty son alone at home.

88) A group of friends decide to sleep at a graveyard for fun on Halloween. Suddenly, they see ghosts emerging from the tombstones.

89) A tailor who makes costumes for Halloween is kidnapped by witches who want to have their own Halloween party.

90) Write a short story on Halloween using the words phantom, nightmare, banshee, and voodoo.

91) A crazy scientist challenges a colleague on Halloween to drink a potion that he has created for an experiment. The colleague drinks the potion and starts shrinking.

92) A witch enchants the pumpkins that will be carved for Halloween. When guests try to carve the pumpkins, blood starts oozing from the pumpkins.

93) A boy befriends an alien who wants to celebrate Halloween. When the alien arrives at the Halloween horror costume party, it gets scared and starts attacking everyone.

94) A girl insults a tarot reader who makes a terrible prediction about her on Halloween. She continuously experiences bad luck, has an accident, and wakes up in the hospital. She realizes that she has forgotten her identity.

95) A man befriends a she-banshee on Halloween who grows extremely possessive about the man. Whenever anyone touches the man, the banshee kills him.

96) A serial killer enters a Halloween party and his next target is you.

97) A group of friends enter a horror maze to celebrate Halloween and are trapped inside the maze. Suddenly, they are confronted by a real ghost who grins wickedly at them.

98) A ghost in your house attracts the presence of animals on Halloween. All animals begin entering your house and you are forced to leave your house.

99) You are a part of a ghost-buster team. You are given the secret task of capturing a dangerous ghost from a Halloween party. The dangerous ghost recognizes you, tries to kill you, and gets very violent.

100) You meet a stranger at a costume party at a neighbor’s house for Halloween. Suddenly, the stranger touches you and whispers strange words in an unknown language. You are transported to an eerie land of spirits, ghouls, trolls, banshees, and zombies.

101) You are hiking with a group of friends on Halloween. You see a black castle floating in the air. A ladder on the ground is positioned, leading to the door of the castle. You and your friend climb the castle and the door slams shut. A wicked dwarf who is the castle’s caretaker tells you that you are trapped forever.

We hope these horror story prompts inspire you to write your next masterpiece. Once you complete working on your scary writing prompts, the next step is to edit your stories. As providers of editing and proofreading services , we’d love to enhance your horror novel!

Here are some other resources that you might find useful:

How to Write a Novel in Past Tense? 3 Steps & Examples
Foil Character: Definition, History, & Examples

Frequently Asked Questions

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135 Horror Writing Prompts: How to Write Scary Stories In 2024

April 12, 2024
Freelancing Tips

Table of Contents Hide

What Are Horror Writing Prompts?

How To Use A Horror Writing Prompt?

Supernatural horror, psychological horror, body horror, monster horror, survival horror, ghost stories, isolation horror, urban horror, historical horror, lovecraftian horror, folklore and mythology, cinematic horror, technological horror, mystery and suspense.

1. Use the environment
2. Use your own fears
3. Write longer sentences
4. Make your readers breathe faster
5. Utilize fear of the unknown
6. Avoid clichés
7. Practice

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Horror writing is a genre that has captivated audiences for centuries, with its ability to evoke fear and suspense in readers. From classic ghost stories to modern psychological thrillers, the horror genre has continuously evolved to bring new scares to audiences. Whether you’re a seasoned horror writer or a newcomer to the genre, these horror writing prompts will help ignite your creativity and guide you in crafting truly terrifying stories.

In the spirit of helping writers find those seeds, here we offer 135 horror writing prompts that you can use as inspiration for your next horror story.

What Are Horror Writing Prompts ?

Horror writing is a genre that has captivated audiences for centuries, with its ability to evoke fear and suspense in readers. The adoption of horror writing prompts in your writing unlocks your imagination, gives you ideas, and leaves you with a lethal weapon against writer’s block.

They spark the creative flame, allowing writers to weave stories that send shivers down readers’ spines and leave them breathless with fear and anticipation for more.

Using a horror writing prompt is simple and effective. Start by using the prompt to develop a plot, setting, and characters that fit the theme. Craft a short story ranging from 500 to 1000 words, allowing your imagination to run wild within the framework of the prompt.

This exercise ignites your creativity, pushing you to think outside the box and hone your skills in creating spine-chilling narratives that linger in the minds of your readers.

READ ALSO: How To Create An Online Writing Portfolio: 15 Must-Haves for a Standout Portfolio

135 Horror Writing Prompts

Our 135 horror writing prompts will be split based on the various types of horror fiction; carefully read through.

A family moves into a new house, only to discover it’s haunted by the spirits of its former occupants.
A cursed object brings misery to anyone who possesses it.
A group of friends decides to play with an Ouija board, unwittingly summoning a malevolent entity.
A person starts experiencing bizarre and terrifying phenomena after dabbling in black magic.
An ancient ritual performed by a cult unleashes a demonic presence in a small town.
A person finds an old, dusty book in an attic that contains spells capable of summoning otherworldly creatures.
A character begins to suspect that their new neighbor is a vampire.
A ghostly figure appears every night at the foot of a child’s bed, whispering dark secrets.
A person inherits an eerie mansion from a distant relative, only to discover it holds dark secrets.
A cursed town is plagued by a series of inexplicable deaths.

You may want to see Best Fantasy Writing Prompts in 2024: 200+ Ideas to Create Magic

A character starts to question their own sanity as they experience increasingly surreal and terrifying events.
A person wakes up in a mental institution with no memory of how they got there, surrounded by patients who seem to be hiding something sinister.
A writer becomes obsessed with a story they’re working on, only to realize it’s slowly becoming their reality.
A therapist begins to suspect that their patient’s terrifying delusions might actually be real.
A person receives anonymous letters detailing gruesome murders, only to realize the murders haven’t happened yet.
A character starts seeing their doppelgänger everywhere they go, each time more distorted and malevolent.
A group of strangers wakes up in an abandoned facility with no memory of how they got there, and they soon realize they’re being hunted.
A person becomes trapped in a time loop, reliving the same terrifying day over and over again.
A character discovers that they can’t trust their own reflection, as it seems to have a mind of its own.
A person wakes up in a strange, empty city where the laws of physics seem to be constantly shifting.
A character starts to notice strange mutations happening to their body, with horrifying consequences.
A town is struck by a mysterious illness that causes its victims to slowly decay while still alive.
A scientist’s experiment goes horribly wrong, resulting in grotesque mutations among the population.
A person discovers strange markings on their body that seem to be moving of their own accord.
A group of hikers stumbles upon a remote village where the inhabitants practice horrifying body modification rituals.
A character wakes up to find their limbs have been replaced with those of a different creature.
A person begins to suspect that their new diet supplement is causing horrifying side effects.
A scientist creates a serum that grants eternal youth, but it comes with a terrible price.
A character starts to shed their skin like a snake, revealing something monstrous underneath.
A mysterious epidemic causes people to lose control over their bodies, resulting in gruesome acts of violence.

Check out the 50 Creative Narrative Writing Prompts to Ignite Your Imagination

A small town is terrorized by a giant creature that emerges from the depths of the nearby lake.
A group of adventurers stumbles upon a hidden cave inhabited by a nest of giant spiders.
A person discovers that their new pet is actually a bloodthirsty monster in disguise.
A character comes face to face with a werewolf in the woods, only to realize it’s someone they know.
A team of researchers accidentally releases a prehistoric creature from its icy tomb.
A person encounters a group of humanoid creatures living in the sewers beneath the city.
A family’s camping trip takes a terrifying turn when they’re stalked by a pack of feral creatures.
A character discovers a secret laboratory where genetic experiments have created monstrous abominations.
A scientist creates a formula that turns people into mindless zombies.
A group of survivors must fend off an invasion of alien creatures with a taste for human flesh.
A group of people wake up in a deserted city overrun by zombies, with no memory of how they got there.
A character finds themselves trapped in a cabin in the woods with a serial killer on the loose.
A person becomes lost in the wilderness and must fend off attacks from a pack of hungry wolves.
A group of friends gets stranded in a remote village inhabited by hostile locals.
A character wakes up in a maze-like labyrinth filled with deadly traps and monstrous creatures.
A family must survive a night in their home while being hunted by a masked intruder.
A person discovers that their remote island getaway is actually a hunting ground for a wealthy elite.
A group of survivors navigate a post-apocalyptic wasteland overrun by mutated creatures.
A character finds themselves trapped in a sinking submarine with a crew member who’s gone mad.
A person must escape from a deranged cult that’s determined to sacrifice them to their dark god.

READ ALSO: 140 Exclusive Writing Prompts For Adults

A person moves into an old mansion and starts to uncover the tragic history of the family who used to live there.
A group of teenagers decides to spend the night in a haunted abandoned asylum.
A character starts receiving messages from beyond the grave, begging for help.
A family is haunted by the ghost of a child who died tragically in their home.
A person inherits a cursed painting that seems to come to life when no one is looking.
A group of friends holds a séance to contact the spirit of a deceased loved one, with terrifying consequences.
A character discovers an old diary hidden in the walls of their house, detailing the gruesome events that led to a murder.
A person encounters a hitchhiker on a deserted road, only to realize they’re not quite alive.
A family moves into a new house, unaware that it’s built on top of an ancient burial ground.
A group of paranormal investigators sets out to uncover the truth behind a series of unexplained deaths in a small town.
A character becomes stranded in a blizzard and seeks shelter in a remote cabin, only to realize they’re not alone.
A person wakes up in a deserted hospital with no memory of how they got there and soon discovers they’re being hunted.
A group of astronauts on a deep space mission begins to suspect that there’s something sinister lurking on their ship.
A character finds themselves trapped in a malfunctioning elevator with a mysterious stranger.
A person takes a job as a caretaker for a remote lighthouse, only to discover it’s haunted by the ghosts of its former keepers.
A family’s road trip takes a terrifying turn when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.
A group of researchers stationed in Antarctica starts to experience strange phenomena as they’re cut off from the outside world.
A character wakes up in a seemingly abandoned city where the only other inhabitants are hostile creatures.
A person becomes lost in the desert and must find a way to survive against the elements and the creatures that lurk within.
A couple’s romantic getaway in the remote countryside turns into a nightmare when they realize they’re being stalked by something in the shadows, lurking just beyond the edge of the forest.
A character moves into a new apartment building, only to discover that its tenants harbor dark secrets.
A person begins to suspect that their neighbor is conducting sinister experiments in their basement.
A group of friends explores an abandoned subway tunnel and uncovers a horrifying secret hidden beneath the city.
A character receives a mysterious package containing videotapes of disturbing events that seem to be happening in their own neighborhood.
A person starts to notice strange symbols painted on buildings around the city, leading them to a hidden cult.
A family moves into a new house, only to find that it’s located in the heart of a neighborhood plagued by unsolved murders.
A group of teenagers sneaks into an abandoned hospital for a night of exploration, but they soon realize they’re not alone.
A character discovers a hidden passage in their apartment building that leads to a network of tunnels beneath the city.
A person starts to receive threatening messages from an anonymous stalker who seems to know everything about them.
A journalist investigates a series of disappearances in the city’s homeless population, uncovering a terrifying conspiracy.

Related Post: 107+ Creative Writing Prompts For Middle School Students

A character inherits an old family estate and discovers that it holds a dark secret dating back centuries.
A group of archaeologists uncovers an ancient tomb buried deep in the jungle, unleashing a curse upon themselves.
A person discovers a hidden chamber in an old castle, where they encounter the restless spirit of a long-dead noble.
A family moves into a house with a tragic history, only to find that the past is still very much alive within its walls.
A character travels back in time to a period of history plagued by witch hunts and finds themselves accused of witchcraft.
A group of pioneers settling in the wilderness encounters hostile natives who warn them of a malevolent presence in the area.
A person inherits an old shipwreck and sets out to salvage its treasures, only to awaken something ancient and evil.
A family vacation to a remote village in Europe takes a terrifying turn when they stumble upon a festival with dark rituals.
A character becomes trapped in the past and must find a way to escape before they’re consumed by its horrors.
A group of soldiers stationed in a remote outpost during wartime must contend with both enemy forces and supernatural threats.
A character discovers a forbidden tome that contains knowledge beyond human comprehension, driving them to madness.
A person investigates strange occurrences in a small coastal town and uncovers a cult worshipping ancient sea gods.
A group of explorers discovers an underground city inhabited by eldritch creatures beyond their understanding.
A character receives a mysterious invitation to a secluded mansion where they encounter beings from another dimension.
A person dreams of a city of impossible geometry and encounters entities that defy description.
A family inherits a cursed artifact that seems to exert a malevolent influence over their minds.
A character stumbles upon a portal to another world and unwittingly releases an ancient evil upon the Earth.
A group of scientists discovers a hidden chamber containing the remains of an extraterrestrial being.
A person receives visions of a looming apocalypse brought about by the awakening of ancient cosmic horrors.
A cult summons a Great Old One to do their bidding, only to realize they’ve unleashed forces they cannot control.
A character encounters a creature from Native American folklore while hiking through the wilderness.
A person visits a remote village in Eastern Europe and becomes entangled in its dark folklore.
A group of travelers seeks shelter in a haunted inn rumored to be the domain of a vengeful spirit.
A character discovers that the fairy tales they were told as a child are based on true events with horrifying consequences.
A family moves to a remote island inhabited by creatures from Celtic mythology.
A person discovers a hidden society living beneath the streets of New York City, ruled by creatures of legend.
A group of adventurers sets out to find a lost city rumored to be inhabited by creatures from Greek mythology.
A character encounters a banshee while exploring an abandoned castle in Ireland.
A person visits a haunted forest said to be inhabited by the spirits of those who died there.
A family vacation to a remote village in Japan turns deadly when they encounter a vengeful yokai.

READ ALSO: 50 Exclusive Writing Prompts For High School Students

A character finds themselves trapped in a never-ending nightmare, where each dream is more terrifying than the last.
A person discovers a hidden camera in their home, capturing footage of their every move while they sleep.
A group of filmmakers sets out to make a documentary about a notorious serial killer, only to become his next victim.
A character receives a mysterious VHS tape containing footage of their own murder.
A person starts to notice strange glitches in reality as if they’re trapped in a never-ending loop.
A family’s home security system captures footage of shadowy figures moving through their house at night.
A group of friends discovers an old film reel in an abandoned theater, only to realize it contains footage of unspeakable horrors.
A character becomes obsessed with a cursed film rumored to drive anyone who watches it insane.
A person starts to receive anonymous phone calls from someone claiming to be a long-dead relative.
A family’s home movies start to reveal disturbing secrets about their past.
A character’s smart home devices start to turn against them, locking them inside their own house.
A person receives a mysterious email containing footage of their own death.
A group of gamers becomes trapped in a virtual reality game where dying means death in real life.
A character discovers a website that predicts their every move with unsettling accuracy.
A person’s social media accounts are taken over by a malevolent AI that knows all their darkest secrets.
A group of scientists creates an artificial intelligence that becomes self-aware and starts to view humanity as a threat.
A character’s self-driving car takes them to a remote location against their will, with sinister intentions.
A person’s smartphone starts to display messages from a future version of themselves, warning of impending doom.
A group of hackers unleashes a virus that turns people’s devices against them, causing chaos and destruction.
A character discovers a hidden camera in their workplace, revealing that they’re being watched by someone with malicious intent.
A person wakes up in a locked room with no memory of how they got there, surrounded by clues to a sinister puzzle.
A character receives a package containing a mysterious artifact and a note warning them of impending danger.
A group of strangers receives invitations to a dinner party hosted by a reclusive millionaire, only to realize they’re being hunted for sport.
A person starts to receive anonymous letters detailing their deepest secrets and darkest fears.
A family’s camping trip takes a terrifying turn when they stumble upon a buried secret that someone is willing to kill to protect.

How To Write A Horror Story

Crafting a horror story demands a great level of skill and awareness to excel in the act. Here are a few tips that will help you take your writing to the next level.

1. Use the environment

Jump-scares are a simple and effective technique used in horror films and television shows, but creating frightening literature has its own way of evoking fear. To completely engross your readers in your location, build up your surroundings in a vivid manner.

Using detailed descriptions of confined spaces might make people feel claustrophobic. A character finds a quiet, dark house even more terrifying when they hear the squeak of a floorboard upstairs. Being an outsider in a strange environment, like a small town where no one has cell phone coverage and everyone knows one another, is already unnerving. The unease of the situation can be increased by adding a malevolent paranormal entity to the mix.

2. Use your own fears

One of the greatest things writers do is to let their point of view fuel their writing; write what you know.

If you’re scared of heights, there is no way you’ll better express the feelings of a character who is at the top of a skyscraper screaming for help. If your biggest fear is height, use that POV, to sum up the feeling in a way that others who share your fear can relate to—don’t try to scare your audience with a werewolf if you can’t properly tap into that fear.

3. Write longer sentences

Longer sentences in writing when used properly can equate to longer anticipation and suspense. While full stops provide natural pauses for readers to take a breath, if you stretch out your sentences, you build anticipation for the reader—which they might not even know until they reach the end of the sentence. By using tactics like this, you get your readers engrossed in the horror story, making them feel what the main character feels and creating a heart-pounding connection.

4. Make your readers breathe faster

Short paragraphs with only one sentence can make your readers take more breaths to keep up with your story, while extended sentences can heighten the tension of a narrative.

Writing abrupt lines increases the tension in your terrifying story and causes the reader’s eyes to scan the page faster in an attempt to find solace in the protagonist’s safety. This may cause your audience to breathe more quickly, which can exacerbate their anxiety and fear.

5. Utilize fear of the unknown

A prevalent motif in numerous outstanding horror fiction and film pieces is the fear of the unknown. Panic and dread are brought on by things that adversely impact us but that we are unable to appropriately identify or manage. When writing horror stories, you can heighten the suspense and terror by teasing your readers with an indefinable creature or a villain no one knows how to stop.

6. Avoid clichés

Clichés are boring and predictable, and a predictable horror scene is likely to not be scary. A good horror story creates its pattern; it doesn’t conform to the regular. Look beyond the obvious when trying to write a scary scene—what is something readers wouldn’t expect? How can you surprise them with fear?

7. Practice

If you’re struggling to get a handle on writing a good scary story, our horror writing prompts are here to help you practice. Writing prompts expands your scope of thinking and opens up new avenues of imagination that you hadn’t thought of before.

Horror writing prompts offer you a wide range of chilling scenarios to ignite your imagination and spark terrifying tales. Irrespective of the type of horror fiction you are creating, these prompts provide solid inspiration on which you can ride to craft your amazing story. Cheers!

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How-To Guides

How to Write a Horror Story in 12 Steps

Spooky times are on their way! In this post, you’ll learn how to write a horror story in 12 easy steps. From the very beginning to the very end, you’ll be a horror writer in no time. Writing a horror story is easy, provided you know how to do it in the right way.

A horror story is usually about a particular issue or theme. It might be about the horrible nature of life, the evil of humans, or the beast inside us. It might even be about fear, or about the various ways in which we face fear. The one thing that all horror stories have in common is that they are “stories of fear.”

The best horror stories are about fear, whether it’s fear of death, fear of disease, fear of the unknown, fear of loneliness, or fear of pain. The main problem with horror stories is that most people don’t like to be scared. Our minds prefer the familiar, the comfortable, and the easy. So how do we get around that?

The answer is that we have to tap into our inner horror. We have to get inside our minds and into our souls to write about horror. It’s not easy, but it’s not hard either. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll be amazed at the results you can achieve.

10 Tips for Writing Horror Stories

Step 1: brainstorm some ideas, step 2: develop your idea, step 3: make a list of main characters, step 4: develop a horrific setting, step 5: outline the opening paragraph, step 6: plan the major climax, step 7: write a twisted ending , step 8: choose a scary writing style, step 9: write the first draft, step 10: edit and review your draft, step 11: choose a chilling book title , step 12: publish the book, how do you start a horror story, what are the 5 elements of a horror story, what makes a good horror story, how do you write in creepy writing, how do i make my character terrifying.

Before you begin writing a horror story, here are 8 tips to help you create the perfect, chilling tale:

Make it realistic: Don’t be afraid to make the story feel real and genuine so that the reader doesn‘t get lost in the atmosphere of the book. Try to use real-life situations as the base of the story, and then you can add the gore afterwards.
Include plot twists: The more twists you can add to the tale, and the more surprises that will occur, the stronger the plot.
Avoid stereotypical characters: Just because it’s horror doesn’t mean you have to have a serial or a cannibal in your story. Go beyond the norm with your characters – remember anyone can be a serial killer, especially the least suspected person!
Pace yourself: Don’t just jump to the scariest moment in the beginning, slowly build up the suspense. Start by giving the reader hints of danger, and then bang when they least suspect bring in the gore.
Play on common fears: Common fears that people face every day. Such as being alone in the dark, being chased by a monster, having a bad dream, etc. Fears are icky, but they can be made into something interesting if you play with them.
Choose a writing style: There are many ways to write horror and some people find that they have an easier time in a journalistic style or in 1st person narrative. Think about what you’re most comfortable with and try it out.
Increase the stakes: The best horror stories involve a sense of fear and dread, so make sure to increase the stakes as you go. If your main character is at a party, maybe there’s something bad lurking in the back room or someone is trying to kill them. Make sure there’s something at stake for your characters and don’t forget to give them something to do besides running away.
Read popular horror stories: Horror can be a very dark genre, so you might want to check out other scary tales to get inspiration. For instance, Stephen King has written some of the most terrifying stories ever created and you might even learn a few things from them.
Pick a horror sub-genre: Horror is very broad and can be done in many different styles and genres. I recommend going for a sub-genre like Gothic Horror, Zombie Horror, or Psychological Horror. You may find that you are more comfortable in one of these areas than in others.
Be imaginative: Your story should be as unique as possible so use your imagination and go crazy! Do not hold back when it comes to creativity, as this is how true horror is born.

How To Write a Horror Story in 12 Steps

Follow these 12 easy steps to create a spine-chilling story that will leave your readers in awe and fear.

Here’s a simple little trick that we can’t recommend enough: start with writing down all of the words and phrases that come to mind when you think about horror. Horror is much more than just scary stories; it’s about fear. So start thinking about the horror you see around you, and what keeps you up at night. The trick is to get into your mind, even if it doesn’t feel comfortable. Try listing your biggest fears, and all the things that make you feel scared. You can also check out this list of over 110 horror story prompts to get you started.

We also recommend keeping a nightmare journal – Which is like a dream journal but filled with notes about your nightmares instead. After you had a really scary dream write down everything you remember from that dream. This can include what you saw, heard and felt during the dream. You can then use these notes as a source of inspiration for your horror story.

Check out these Halloween writing prompts and Halloween picture prompts for more ideas.

What keeps you up at night? The evil monsters in the monsters movies? The epidemic of a deadly virus? A tragic unsolved crime? Whatever your issue is, it can be used to create a horror story that will have your readers sweating bullets. Take your ideas from the previous step and develop them into a truly horrific story idea. Once you have written down the basic idea, try to think about how that idea can be made scarier.

For example, if you’re writing about a deadly disease, you could use the theme of death to make it scarier. Have the characters die in the story in a mutated sort of way or from some weird side effect that leads to death. There are plenty of ways to make the story more horrible:

Try thinking about an ordinary situation that everyone goes through and add something horrific to it. The trick to making your story scary is to make it believable. In other words, you want to make your story as true to life as possible.
Focus on some terrifying emotions, fear being the obvious one. But you can also think about crudeness, disgust, as well as anger, regret, paranoia and shock factor.
Add in some unnatural details, such as spaghetti turning into worms or blood coming out of solid, unliving objects.

Write down all of the main characters in the story. If you have more than one, give each character a distinct personality. Make sure that each character has a certain reason for their actions and be sure that they reflect their personality.

Whatever your horror is, you should probably have a main character that will be a part of the story. When you write the story, it’s going to be easier to create a tense atmosphere if you have a character to relate to. Also, you may want to make sure that you have a few supporting characters that you can add to the story. The supporting characters might also become the main characters in any sequels you plan on writing.

The other characters in the story should be the antagonists. These are the evil people or creatures that are keeping you up at night. They might be the killer, the ghost , the werewolf , the zombie, the villain, the monster , the demon, or the bad guy. Whatever the issue is, that’s what the antagonist will be in the story. They might start out as just an ordinary person, but they’ll end up being more evil than the main character.

Check out this guide on character development to help you develop a powerful character.

When writing a horror story, it’s very important that you get the setting right. Think about some scary places that you know of in real life or places that you’ve seen in your nightmares. You could also link your main setting choice to a common fear explored in your story. For example, if the core concept of your horror story is related to the fear of heights, then the main setting may be a high-rise building that’s filled with monsters.

Other common horror story settings may include a haunted house , a creepy old mansion, graveyards and even quiet suburban towns. Whatever your choice of setting, try to write a detailed description of the main setting in this step. Think about the appearance of the location, the weather, the feeling someone has when standing in this location, as well as what kind of people live here, along with the beliefs they hold.

Interested in creating a whole new world for your horror story? Check this master list of over 100 world-building questions .

The opening paragraph will be the first thing your readers see. It should be a teaser that sets the tone for the story. In other words, the first paragraph should be intriguing enough to make your readers want to keep reading. You should ideally include the main character’s name, the setting, the antagonist, the fear of the story, and the main character’s problem.

If the story is about a haunted house, then the outline of the opening paragraph could say something like this:

The house is empty. It has been for a long time. It’s been vacant for years and years. It sits in the middle of a quiet, suburban neighbourhood. The grass is green and the trees are tall. The neighbourhood is quiet, but the town is not as quiet as everyone thinks. There are whispers, rumours, and stories. But the truth is, no one has ever seen or heard anything unusual here. Not until Wendy Williams and her daughter moved in.

During this step, it is important to try to write an opening that gives the reader a taste of the entire story. But of course, don’t give too much away – Just a hint of fear will do! Your goal here is to have the reader wanting more.

See this list of over 150 story starters to help you get started with your spooky tale.

This step is basically the big bang. It’s where your main character goes head-to-head with the antagonist in the story or has to face their greatest fear. It’s also when your main character learns the truth about the antagonist. The goal of this step is to keep your readers on the edge of their seats.

When writing the climax, think about what will happen, who will be in danger, and what the outcome will be. If you’re struggling with the climax, then you should start with a smaller problem and work your way up to the big one. For example, you could start with a little bit of trouble with a character, such as a bad dream or the main character getting hurt. This will get your readers involved in the story. You may find that once you start writing, you’ll come up with a more complicated problem that your main character will have to solve.

Here’s an example of what a potential climax scene sounds like in a horror story:

The sound of footsteps is heard coming down the stairs. The footsteps are too heavy, and they seem to be coming from the basement. The door to the basement creaks open. Then a face is seen in the door frame. It’s a face with large, red eyes, and it’s full of hate.

In horror stories, the twist ending is almost always a shock reveal of some kind. Whether the true murderer is revealed, or the identity of the antagonist is revealed, it should always be a surprise.

There are several ways to write a twist ending, but you’ll probably want to start with a twist that’s a little more obvious. You could reveal who the antagonist really is, or even what the main character has been hiding. Or you could have the main character learn some shocking information that sends them in a completely different direction.

The unique thing about the horror genre is that even after the mystery or problem is solved, it’s not always 100% solved. There’s always some darkness lurking somewhere. Was he really the murderer? Maybe there’s more than one monster? Give this final hint of darkness to keep your readers second-guessing even after the book is over. Now that’s where the true horror lies!

Of course, horror stories are written in a more darker and dramatic style compared to other genres. But there’s more to horror writing than just using dark words and descriptions of gory scenes. In this step, you want to think about the actual writing of your horror style. Will it be written in the first person, second person or third? Do you want to take a more journalistic approach where you report horrific events? Or will you take a more narrative approach, where the reader is on the outside looking in?

In our opinion, a horror story written in the first person has a much more powerful effect. There’s something about having the perspective of the main character that makes them more vulnerable. There’s also something about being told a story by another character that makes the story more real.

While the third person is great for taking the reader through a story, it doesn’t allow for the depth of emotion that can be found in the first person. If you choose to write in the third person, then you’ll want to stick with the voice of an objective narrator who is reporting on the events of the story.

Either way, you’ll want to try to avoid too many descriptions of gruesome scenes. You want to keep the focus on your main character’s emotions and how they feel, and their problem.

Finally, it’s time to start writing your story! Hopefully, after all these steps, you now have a rough outline for your story. But even if you don’t, just start writing! The first draft is usually the most important one. So even if you don’t have a complete outline, get started on your story. Just start writing and don’t worry about anything else! You might also want to read this post on how to outline a book for more guidance.

While writing your draft, you’ll want to keep these things in mind:

Make sure your story is believable to a certain extent. Of course, you might think that vampires aren’t real – But make them real for your readers! This is the most important thing. If your story is impossible or unbelievable, then no one will want to read it.
Avoid using clichés. These are words or phrases that are overused in stories and don’t really add anything to your story.
Use active voice instead of passive voice. Passive voice is when a sentence starts with “someone” or “something”. Active voice is when the sentence starts with “I” or “we”.
Use short sentences and paragraphs. Long sentences make it difficult to read, and paragraphs look heavy.
If you’re struggling to get anything written down, then start with the easiest or shortest scenes first. You can always come back to the more complicated areas of your story later when you’re ready.

And finally, have fun with it! Writing is supposed to be a fun hobby, so don’t take yourself too seriously!

The hard part is done, now you’re ready to start editing your story! Start by reading the story to yourself a couple of times. Each time you read your story highlight areas that you are unsure of, or would like to improve. At the same time look out for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and sentences that sound a bit off. Once you’re done with this review, you can go back and make the relevant edits to your story.

Next, you’ll want to gather some feedback. This is where you’ll want to have a second or third person read your story. It’s not a good idea to let one person read your draft, as they’ll be biased towards what they like. So get a few different people to read your story, and make sure they have a different perspective. They can be family members, teachers, or even a friend that’s not familiar with your writing style.

When asking for feedback, you can ask the following questions:

What are the most important parts of the story?
Are there any parts of the story that don’t make sense or are confusing?
What did you like most about the story?
Can you think of anything that could be improved?
Did you like the main character?

Once you have the feedback, you can go back and make the changes. It’s important to make the edits, but don’t obsess over it. In the end, you want to make the story the best that it can be. And by doing this, you’ll be on your way to writing a great horror story!

It’s time to choose a book title. This is a very important part of a horror story. Not only does a good title help to give your story an identity, but it also helps to tell the reader what kind of story they’re about to read. The title should have a great hook. It should be intriguing and a little bit scary. If you’re struggling to think of a great book title, then you can try to think about what you’d like to read. Would you like to read a book that scares you? Or would you rather read a book that’s about someone’s struggles?

If we look at some popular horror book titles, we can see that most of them are quite descriptive:

The Woman in Black
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Haunting of Aveline Jones
The Haunting of Hill House
The Graveyard Book

Essentially, they either describe the antagonist of the story or the main setting in the story. Based on this try to summarise your horror story in as little as 3 to 5 words. Think about the main setting or the main villain/monster of your tale and come up with some book title ideas. If you’re still struggling, check out this horror book title generator for some more interesting ideas.

An important thing to note here is that you should make sure that your book title is not already in use or taken by another author. Try doing a quick Google search or a search on Amazon to see if your title is available for the taking!

Your book is now finished! You’ve written the first draft, edited it, gathered feedback, and now it’s time to publish it! There are many ways to publish your book. The most popular method is to publish it on Amazon as a self-published author. You can also work with a professional publisher to get your book to market.

Remember that if you’re a new writer, then it’s not a good idea to start by publishing your book on Amazon. It’s better to start slow and work your way up. You don’t want to rush your writing and end up with a book full of mistakes! Start by publishing your book using a free tool like the Imagine Forest story creator , then later work your way up to publishing on Amazon.

That’s it! Now you should be ready to write your own horror story! Give it a go and see what you can come up with!

Frequently Asked Questions

There are a number of ways to start writing a horror story:

Focus on your own fears. Start by listing your fears and develop your story idea from there.
Introduce the character. You can describe your main character in the first few scenes. Make them as normal, and relatable as possible
Describe a setting. If the setting is key to your story, then describe every inch of it. Make your readers feel like they are right there with you.
Start with some action. This could be a bloody murder, someone screaming and running or anything else that makes the reader feel uncomfortable.
Picture a harmonious place. You can describe a calm and happy place. Somewhere taken from a romantic rom-com type story or a happy family movie, which all suddenly changes.
Start at the end. Rewrite your potential ending as the beginning, and then work your way backwards.

The 5 elements of horror include Character, Setting, Action, Horror, and Resolution. All these elements are crucial in developing a gruesome horror story.

See our guide on the 5 elements of story-telling for more information.

A good horror story has fear at its core. The reader must be scared as they read the story. If not then you missed something important in your novel. A good horror story must be scary, but it should also have an element of realism to it. The story should include relatable main characters, a scary antagonist, a creepy setting and of course a shocking reveal at the end.

Your first step is to try to think about the creepiness of the setting. Is it a dark and scary place? Is it full of secrets? If it is, then you have a good place to start. Try to be very detailed, and specific when describing the setting. Describe the blood on the wall as it drips down, or the lock on the door that won’t turn. Make the reader feel as if they are right there. Use descriptive words and metaphors to bring your gory details to life.

To make your character as terrifying as possible, you could try the following techniques:

Make your character an outcast. They don’t fit in with the main group of characters and can’t be trusted.
Give them a story to tell. A dark and bloody past.
Make them a loner. They can’t trust anyone else and have no friends.
Make them a survivor. The main character of your story has been through a lot and can’t be stopped.
Give the character an important title. Someone who is important in a society that has deadly plans. You can’t trust them, but have no choice but to follow their rules.

Did you find this guide on how to write a horror story useful? Let us know in the comments below.

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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Home / Book Writing / Horror Writing Prompts: 50+ Ideas to Get You Started

Horror Writing Prompts: 50+ Ideas to Get You Started

Horror writers get their ideas from a number of sources. Whether it be from a seemingly innocent interaction at the grocery store or a terrifying nightmare that just won't go away, there's no shortage of horror story ideas. But sometimes, you just need a little nudge to get the terror flowing. And that's just what you'll get in this article with these horror writing prompts.

Ingredients for a good horror story.
Horror story writing prompts.
Vetting your horror story idea.

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Test Your Horror Idea

Like most umbrella terms for major genres, “horror” covers a whole range of different styles, tropes, and subject matter. Psychological horror and slasher horror are two examples that lie near opposite ends of the spectrum. That said, there are certain things that horror readers expect from stories, no matter what subgenre.

As you can probably guess, these expectations aren't about feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Horror readers want to be scared . Some of them want to be grossed out and scared. They want to deal with fear from the safety of their couch or bed. They want to feel the hairs on the back of their neck prickle as the hulking monster stalks the unwitting character or the malevolent spirit stands next to the sleeping woman.

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But to do this effectively, the reader has to care about the character . Like all stories, horror tales are about humans. Most often, they’re about good people who find themselves in bad situations. So make sure to include a character arc and a good number of round characters .

Additionally, horror readers like to be surprised . While not every horror story needs a plot twist, you'll find that many of them have one (or more).

Keep these factors in mind as we go through this article and explore the prompts that can help you write a great horror story. And if you're suffering from writer's block , the following prompts can certainly help.

Horror Story Prompts

Horror stories don't necessarily have to fit into a subgenre. Any of the following ideas will make for a scary story.

1. A woman is convinced demonic possession is real, and only she can tell who is possessed. The only way to send the demons back to hell is to kill the person.

2. A little boy shows up at an adult character's house. He knows things about the adult that he's never told anyone. And he wants help killing someone.

3. A woman comes home to find that her house has been ransacked. The only thing that's missing is the positive pregnancy test she just took the day before.

4. As part of his job, a law enforcement officer investigates a dark website about demonic killers. Strange things start to happen as the investigation proceeds.

5. A teenager comes back home to his small mountain town after being away at camp. But he finds that everyone is acting strange and all the birds are gone.

6. A character finds that her social media has been hacked, and all her pictures have been expertly altered to make it look like she's dead.

7. There's a new scary movie out. The main character goes to the special midnight showing, but something terrible happens in the middle of the movie, and many of the audience members now have a taste for human flesh.

8. A small town is tormented by a supernatural force. It turns out that many of the people in the town helped cover up a horrible murder. Someone is seeking revenge from beyond the grave.

9. A man wins the lottery and starts living the high life. He breaks up with his old girlfriend for a new one. But the new one ends up dead, and he's the main suspect.

10. A bully terrorizes a small town, until the people have had enough. What they don't realize is the town bully is well-versed in the dark arts.

11. A girl who loves writing horror stories finds herself dealing with a crazy religious group that thinks what she does is immoral.

12. A couple of burglars break into a house only to find that they've been set up. The house is a mess of traps designed to torture the two burglars.

13. An amusement park worker finds that something sinister is going on behind the scenes.

14. A character attends a party in which an ancient ritual will be performed. He doesn't believe in the ritual, but he's in for a horrible surprise.

15. A new phone app that young people are using gives them powers to do amazing things. But with too much use, the app takes control of them.

Slasher horror movies are popular for a reason, and the same goes for books. Sometimes the scariest horror fiction involves something that can happen in real life.

16. Write a story set in the old west, where people are being brutally murdered. It's made to look like Native Americans are doing it, but the local sheriff suspects otherwise.

17. A killer is targeting police officers. The city is on edge, and a detective has a personal stake in catching the killer. But the killer soon targets her loved ones.

18. The main character thinks his neighbor is a serial killer. But we soon find out that the main character is the killer, and he's trying to set up his neighbor to take the fall.

19. A group of young people shows up at a camp three years after several people are murdered there. But these young people have come for revenge against the killer.

20. A man feels compelled to kill people he doesn't know. He soon figures out that someone is manipulating him with the dark arts.

Whether we're talking about Stephen King, Peter Straub, or any number of other great horror writers, ghosts and ghouls make for great horror fiction.

21. The staff of a mortuary start dying off through unexplained means. It turns out they've been stealing from their clients, and their dead family members are trying to right the wrongs.

22. A child is convinced his house is haunted. He tries to tell his mother about it but finds that she can no longer hear or see him. It's like he never existed.

23. A story about a haunting convinces people that ghosts are trying to kill them. Anyone who hears the story starts experiencing strange things. People say it's all in their heads, but it might be real.

24. A young couple driving cross-country finds a little girl. She tells them her story as they take her to the nearest police station. But when they get there, she's gone.

25. Explore the implications of an old man who goes out of his way to make ghosts so he'll have company after he dies.

Hulking monsters that go bump in the night are common staples of the horror genre. These prompts should lend you some monstrous inspiration.

26. An experiment gone wrong releases a virus that turns certain dog breeds into demonic killing machines.

27. A fracking company accidentally releases something huge and horrific from under the surface of the earth.

28. Vampires exist, but they're far more brutal, ugly, and harder to kill than lore suggests. And they've suddenly been released from their containment spell.

29. There's something strange about the neighbors who've just moved into the house. They say they have dogs, but the main character has only ever seen evidence of these huge dogs during full moons.

30. A horror writer is desperate for ideas. She steals a cursed item that is supposed to give her inspiration. But instead, it makes the monsters of her imagination come to life.

Not every horror story idea has to do with visible monsters or killers. Psychological horror uses the human psyche to ratchet up the fear factor for ultimate screams.

31. A young reporter's Twitter account is hacked. She keeps getting strange and threatening messages. Soon, she comes home to find her cat dead. Someone is messing with her, and she needs to find out why.

32. A man with a mysterious past has finally found some peace. But someone who he thought was dead shows up from his past.

33. This creepy story takes place over the course of a single night, in which campers are taunted by beings in the forest that pit the campers against each other.

34. Two coworkers are forced to spend the night in a dilapidated hotel. But it's a night that never ends, and they're both convinced there's something seriously wrong with the other.

35. A social media influencer live-streams a crime spree. It turns out the whole thing is faked, but the people who go out to stop him don't know that.

We couldn't mention horror stories without talking about Halloween. These prompts are all Halloween-themed.

36. As Halloween night gets into full swing, the power to the entire city goes out. And there's something in the dark that's powerful and ruthless.

37. A family who loves Halloween decides to take their haunted house a step further by stealing some dead bodies from the local morgue. But they choose the wrong morgue, because these bodies aren't all the way dead.

38. A town that has been haunted by a brutal killer on Halloween for years is on edge. A kid playing a prank dresses up as the killer and gets shot. Chaos ensues as neighbors turn against each other.

39. The main character wakes up on Halloween morning to find herself in a dilapidated version of her town. And all the people are mysteriously gone. But it seems she's not alone.

40. A cult leader convinces his followers to kill themselves on Halloween night. But some of the characters try to escape. The cult leader won't allow that to happen.

Mixing common science fiction themes with tried-and-true horror themes can make for a great story.

41. A mission to Mars is thrown off track as one of the astronauts becomes sick with a mysterious and deformative virus.

42. Strange ball-shaped objects suddenly appear all over Earth. People who come near them start acting very strange.

43. While testing a new weapon, the US Government accidentally opens a portal to another dimension. And the creatures of that dimension don't like humans.

44. In the not-too-distant future, the Earth is infested with killer plants and deformed beasts that keep getting better at killing humans.

45. A scientist opens a time portal, but he lets the wrong person use it. He must trip through time to right the wrongs done by the antagonist.

Mystery and horror often go hand-in-hand. So if you like intrigue with your terror, pick a horror prompt from below to get the creative juices flowing.

46. There's a killer terrorizing an American colony in the eighteenth century. But as the main characters get closer to the culprit, they suspect there's something inhuman at work.

47. A Sherlock Holmes-like character uses his skills to make criminals pay for their crimes . . . with their lives.

48. A woman decides to take self-defense classes. But someone from the class follows her home and tries to convince her she's in danger.

49. A group of people is locked in a house together. They must figure out why they've each been chosen, or else they'll die by morning.

50. A man takes it upon himself to do what the police can't: find out who is abducting children in his town. But what he finds is a conspiracy involving powerful people in a dark cult.

Increase Your Book Sales

Over 47,000+ authors, NYT bestsellers, and publishing companies use Publisher Rocket to gain insight to the market.

While practicing your craft with these prompts is a worthy time investment, you may have an idea for a full-length novel. If so, it's best to do a bit of research to ensure that the idea is commercially viable . And the easiest way to do this is with Publisher Rocket .

You can think of the information you get from Publisher Rocket as the foundation for your horror writing career . You get insights directly from Amazon on:

Keywords – Metadata to position your book on Amazon.
Competition – Allowing you to see what's selling and how stiff the competition is.
Categories – So you know where people who are looking for books like yours go to find them.
Amazon Ads – Helps you quickly configure a list of profitable keywords for running ads.

Check out Publisher Rocket here to get started.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

Author vs writer: what’s the difference, how to write an adventure story, parts of a book [from cover to cover], sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

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365 Horrifying Horror Writing Prompts

November 14, 2023 by Richard Leave a Comment

Here are 365 Horrifying Horror Writing Prompts to inspire your writing every day of the year. Darkness falls. Shadows lengthen. The hair on the back of your neck prickles as the last rays of light fade away. Something stirs in the darkness. You can feel unseen eyes watching, evil lurking just out of sight—the night beckons, hungry for new terrors to unleash.

Within these pages await 365 prompts to inspire bone-chilling tales filled with the creepy, twisted, and macabre. Let your imagination wander into dark and haunted places, conjure nightmarish creatures from terrifying depths, and explore the disturbing boundaries of human depravity.

Summon vengeful spirits, stalk feral beasts through moonlit woods, or open forbidden doors that should stay locked. But beware, these prompts may awaken fears you never knew existed as you walk the line between spine-tingling thrills and nightmare-inducing horror.

With so many prompts, the possibilities for crafting your own horror stories are endless. You may never sleep soundly again after lingering in realms of psychological suspense, paranormal unease, and visceral horror. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. The terror is about to begin…

Open the door, leave the light off, and prepare to confront your deepest fears. Once you immerse yourself in these 365 prompts, any shred of comfort or safety will be shattered. There is no escaping the darkness that awaits within these pages. Let the horror commence…

You glimpse what looks like your neighbor transforming into a hairy beast under the full moon through your window at night.
A vampire lures you into his gothic mansion under the pretense of a date. You’re trapped inside overnight.
You notice your reflection’s eyes glowing in the dark whenever you glance away from the mirror. Fangs slide from your mouth when you smile.
A mysterious stranger with hypnotic eyes seduces you at a nightclub. You wake up with bite marks on your neck.
You find a secret passage in your basement leading to an underground lair filled with sleeping coffins.
A feral werewolf stalks the woods surrounding your cabin on the night of the full moon. You’re trapped inside.
You discover an ancient book with rituals for summoning demons. Shadowy figures emerge from your closet after you read an incantation aloud.
A decrepit old manor deep in the woods is said to be inhabited by vampires. You decide to investigate at night and become trapped inside.
A dating app match invited you over for a “nightcap.” You wake up disoriented with bandages on your neck.
A creepy stranger at a carnival offers to tell your fortune. He predicts you’ll become a powerful vampire under the next full moon.
A scientists performs experiments splicing human and animal DNA. Escaped beast-men now hunt locals at night.
A tunnel in your basement leads to a vast underground metropolis populated by creatures of the night.
On a guided tour, you get lost in the ancient catacombs beneath the city. You hear inhuman howls in the labyrinth of tunnels.
A blood bank is robbed of all its plasma bags. The technician was found drained of blood.
You wake up to find bite marks and fur all over your body after a lunar eclipse. Your reflection is more beast than human.
A creepy stranger at a nightclub disappears with your friend. You find your friend unconscious behind the club, neck bandaged.
You glimpse what appears to be your neighbor transforming into a wolf under the moonlight through your window at night.
A dating app match invited you to their gothic mansion in the woods for a romantic evening. You’re unable to leave as the sun sets.
Howls echo outside your rural cabin on the night of the full moon. Inhuman, glowing eyes stare back from the treeline.
A tunnel in your basement leads to a vast subterranean city of the undead. You accidentally become trapped overnight.
On a campus ghost tour, you get lost in an off-limits section said to be stalked by a vampire. Escaping after nightfall will be nearly impossible.
An ancient ritual book instructs you how to open a portal to a hellish dimension. You read the incantation aloud as a test.
A creepy carnival worker warns you to avoid the house of mirrors. You glimpse beastly figures staring back from the glass.
A strange infection transforms residents into ravenous zombies after nightfall. You’re stranded downtown past sunset.
Local blood bank technicians are found drained of blood with mysterious neck punctures. A wave of vampirism overwhelms your town.
A tunnel in your basement leads to a vast underground metropolis populated by creatures of the night. You become trapped after sundown.
On the night of a lunar eclipse, you get lost hiking and stumble upon what appears to be a meeting place for warped beasts.
A dating app match invites you to their mansion deep in the woods for a steamy night. You arrive to find coffins lining the great hall.
You wake up in the middle of the night to see your neighbor staring back at you through the window with glowing eyes and elongated fangs.
A strange infection transforms residents into feral beasts when enraged. Quarantine protocols trap you downtown after nightfall.
Howls and shrieks echo from the old asylum at night. You sneak inside to investigate and become trapped with the creatures that dwell within.
A tunnel in the cemetery leads to a secret gathering place for ghouls and vampires beneath the city. You stumble upon their nightly meeting.
A creepy stranger warns that a demonic beast hunts the woods during the blood moon. You’re forced to take shelter in a nearby cave.
On your hotel balcony, you spot a figure across the street make an inhuman leap to the rooftop. A creature is stalking the city.
A dating app match invited you back to their place. You wake up disoriented with bite marks all over your neck.
An ancient ritual book instructs you how to open a portal to another dimension. You recite the incantation as a test, and a clawed hand reaches through.
You get lost on a ghost tour of the old city catacombs. Howls echo from the labyrinth of tunnels as the sun sets above.
A creepy carnival worker warns you to avoid the house of mirrors at night. You glimpse your beastly reflection staring back.
A mad scientist performs experiments splicing human and beast DNA. You help one of his tortured experiments escape.
On the night of a lunar eclipse, you witness what appears to be your neighbor transforming into a fanged beast under the blood moon.
While exploring the old cemetery, you discover a tunnel that leads to a secret underground meeting place for vampires and ghouls.
A dating app match invites you to their secluded manor deep in the woods for a romantic evening. You arrive to find it’s overrun with werewolves.
Howls echo outside your rural cabin on the night of the full moon. Glowing eyes stare back from the darkness. The wolves have your scent.
A strange infection transforms people into rabid beasts when enraged. You’re trapped downtown past nightfall as residents begin to turn.
Local blood banks are robbed of all plasma. Overnight, the city is overrun by a wave of vampirism.
You wake up after a night you can’t remember covered in bites and fur. Howls echo outside under the full moon.
You stumble upon what appears to be a gathering place for warped creatures deep in the woods at night. They spot you observing their ritual.
While exploring the old asylum, you become trapped inside overnight. Feral shrieks and howls echo through the abandoned cellblocks after sunset.
A dating app match invites you to their gothic mansion in the woods for a romantic evening. You arrive to find coffins lining the great hall.
You wake up to find your bed swarming with spiders. Their glowing red eyes stare back as they crawl towards you.
While exploring a cave, you stumble upon a giant egg sac filled with thousands of fist-sized spider eggs about to hatch.
You discover an old journal describing rituals to summon shadow demons. You read an incantation aloud as a test. Clawed hands reach from the darkness.
You wake up paralyzed as a shadowy ghostly figure looms over your bed, staring directly into your eyes.
Your reflection in the mirror becomes possessed, snarling and threatening you with a demonic voice telling you all the ways it plans to mutilate your body.
You get trapped overnight at an insect research facility. Mutated super-sized ants and roaches swarm through the halls, sensing fresh prey.
While camping, you wake to find yourself cocooned inside a giant spider web. The creature that spun it approaches from the trees, hungry for its trapped prey.
You stumble upon an abandoned mansion infested with rabid rats. They quickly surround you, squealing and baring their bloodied teeth.
On a dare, you play a chant from an old book said to summon a vengeful spirit. You glance up to see the ghostly girl from the story standing behind you in the mirror.
You discover your attic is infested with hundreds of spiders. Their webs coat every inch. At night you hear them skittering in the walls, ceiling, and vents.
You get bitten by a strange insect while exploring a remote island jungle. Soon you develop odd cravings, inhuman strength, and a thirst for flesh.
Home alone at night, you hear skittering and clacking sounds from the dark basement. Giant insectoid shadows creep up the stairs towards you.
You accidentally step on an ant hill during a hike. They swarm up your legs, stinging and biting relentlessly as you scream in agony.
Near an abandoned mine, you glimpse what looks like a giant spider dragging a human body back to its lair. But when you follow it, there’s no trace.
You wake paralyzed at night with a creepy crawly sensation. Peering into the darkness, you see hundreds of spiders emerge from under your bed and covers.
You discover a hidden chamber under your house containing grisly remains wrapped in webbing. At night you hear skittering in the walls and vents.
Home alone, you hear scratching and fluttering coming from the chimney. A colony of bats suddenly floods into the living room, swarming around you.
You find an old shack filled with strange cocoons and webbing that seems to pulse with life. Shadowy shapes shift inside them.
You accidentally unleash a cursed swarm of locusts while reading an ancient text. They voraciously devour every living thing in their path.
On a camping trip, you wake up to find yourself strapped down in the massive web of a building-sized spider. Its shadow looms over you as it descends from the trees.
You get trapped in a cave filled with giant cocoons twice your size. They begin to split open, birthing horrific winged creatures.
You find an old dollhouse intricately decorated with dead insects in miniature scenes. At night you think you glimpse them moving inside it.
You discover an oddly-shaped cocoon pulsing with life attached to your house. It splits open at night, birthing a terrifying creature.
You accidentally bring a cockroach home from a trip. It escapes and breeds, soon infesting your entire home with ravenous mutant roaches.
You wake up buried alive with just a faint glow stick, cell phone with no signal, and a handwritten note that says “Nobody will find you here.”
Your baby monitor picks up the sound of a maniacal voice whispering “I’m inside your house” when you’re home alone.
You find a hidden trap door under a rug in your basement. It leads to a soundproof underground room stained with blood.
Your front door security camera captures a masked man crawling out from under your bed while you sleep just inches away.
You glimpse people with blurry, staticky faces standing silently in your peripheral vision. When you turn, no one is there.
Your young daughter keeps talking about her new “imaginary friend” who visits her bedroom closet at night. You hear faint whispers from inside when home alone.
You wake up to find yourself strapped to an operating table in an abandoned hospital surrounded by disturbing medical tools. No one is around.
You find an old Polaroid of yourself sleeping on the porch steps of your childhood home. You lived alone and the photo was taken at night through the front door.
You glimpse grinning corpses propped up around the dinner table when you walk through the dark house at night. But when you turn on the lights, the bodies vanish.
You notice a bloody, clawed handprint appear on the bathroom mirror after you shower. It drips down the glass, leaving a red trail.
You wake up in a pitch black room chained to a cold metal chair. A child’s voice says, “It’s time to play the hunting game.”
You find an old unmarked VHS tape with “Watch Me” scribbled on it. It shows grainy night vision footage of a shadowy figure watching you sleep.
You glimpse people you know with jet black eyes and fanged smiles beckoning you to come closer out of the corner of your eye. But when you look directly they seem totally normal.
You come home to find the power cut and the words “I’m already inside” painted in blood on every mirror.
You wake up to find yourself floating over your own sleeping body. Something else now inhabits your physical form and is living your life.
You start finding creepy/threatening notes written in red ink on your bathroom mirror when home alone. The writing matches your handwriting perfectly.
You glimpse grinning corpses of your loved ones sitting around the dinner table out of the corner of your eye. But when you look directly, the bodies vanish.
You come home to find your front door wide open and bloody child-sized footprints leading from your bedroom to the hallway closet before disappearing.
You wake up to the sound of screaming coming from inside your own body, but you are paralyzed and cannot move or make a sound.
You notice a puddle of fresh blood pooling under your bed at night. But by morning, it has mysteriously vanished leaving no trace.
You start hearing faint cries for help behind your bedroom wall at night. The next morning, you find bloody scratch marks inside the wall.
You glimpse people with your face but with soulless black eyes staring at you from around corners and darkened doorways whenever you’re home alone.
Your young son keeps wanting to play a “staring game” where he gazes deeply into your eyes without blinking for uncomfortably long amounts of time.
You wake up to find your bedroom window open and child-sized, clawed footprints burned into your ceiling above your bed.
You glimpse faceless people wearing your clothes pointing up at your bedroom ceiling at night. Bloody words appear above your bed spelling out a death threat.
Your new puppy stares wide-eyed at your basement door while growling at an unseen entity. You start hearing faint whispers and scratching sounds from behind the door.
You glimpse a shadowy, humanoid creature with long limbs and jagged teeth prowling on all fours around your bedroom at night when you wake up. But when you turn on the light, it’s gone.
Your young niece keeps asking you to play a staring game, promising that something amazing will happen if you don’t blink for one full minute while gazing into her eyes.
You wake up to find yourself strapped to an operating table in a morgue. The chilling sound of a bone saw powering up echoes from the darkness.
A little girl in antique clothes appears weeping in the corner of your bedroom at night, warning you never to sleep again.
Your baby monitor camera pans by itself to show a dark figure hunched over your child’s crib before the screen goes black.
You wake up to find yourself bone thin and trapped inside a coffin-sized cage hanging from the ceiling of an empty room.
You glimpse a doppelgänger of yourself staring back from inside the bathroom mirror whenever you look away.
Your doorbell camera captures a hyper-realistic puppet-like version of you entering your house at night while you sleep.
You glimpse an empty baby stroller rocking itself back and forth outside your front door when home alone at night.
You start finding cryptic notes written in what appears to be blood hidden around your house saying things like, “I’m already inside” and “Let me in.”
You wake up to find yourself suspended high above your bed with shadowy hands gripping your arms and legs to hold you in place.
Your home phone rings in the middle of the night. You hear only high-pitched static, yet your caller ID displays your name and number.
You come home to find all the lights on, puddles of muddy footprints around the house, and the faint smell of rotting meat coming from the vents.
You notice a puddle of fresh blood pooling under your bed each night. One night you glimpse a small, clawed hand briefly grasp the bedframe before disappearing back under into darkness.
You glimpse a shadowy doppelgänger mimicking your movements when you look in the bathroom mirror at night. If you stop moving, it grins back with a mouthful of pointed teeth.
You wake up unable to move and see a dark figure crouched on your chest staring back with reflective, animal-like eyes.
Your front door security camera footage shows people that look just like you entering your house at night while you sleep. By morning, there’s no sign of intruders inside.
You glimpse an empty baby cradle rocking itself in the darkness of your living room when home alone at night. But when you turn on the light, it vanishes.
Your young niece keeps asking if she can “play” with your pet hamster. Sometimes you hear faint squeaking coming from inside her room.
You wake to find yourself strapped to a chair in a dark, empty warehouse. A child’s voice echoes, “Let’s see how long you can keep your eyes open during our little game…”
You glimpse a shadowy hooded figure standing silently in your peripheral vision. When you turn to look directly, it screams inches from your face before vanishing.
You notice a puddle of fresh blood pooling around your bathroom sink each night. One night you glimpse a clawed, rotting hand clutching the faucet before disappearing down the drain.
Your front doorbell camera shows an old woman standing motionless on your porch steps, staring directly into the camera lens without blinking while holding an unlit candle. She seems blurry, staticky, and translucent.
You wake up unable to move and see a shadowy humanoid creature crawling on your ceiling. It slowly creeps down the walls upside-down toward your paralyzed body smiling with a mouthful of needle-like teeth.
You wake up in a dark room strapped to a stretcher. A faceless surgeon slowly approaches you holding a gleaming scalpel.
You glimpse grinning, corpse-like versions of your loved ones beckoning you closer with clawed hands out of the corner of your eye.
You notice a puddle of blood seeping from beneath your closet door at night. Something seems to be slowly scratching its way out.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in on a pale hand reaching into your infant’s crib during the night. You rush in to find the crib empty.
You glimpse people you know with milky white eyes and stitched-together body parts shambling toward you, arms outstretched, when you look away.
You wake up chained to a filthy tiled wall in a shadowy basement. Scratch marks cover the walls and the faint sound of whimpering echoes from the darkness.
Your front door security camera shows a hyper-realistic version of you prowling around the porch on all fours at night, unnaturally contorting its body to fit.
You notice a puddle of blood pooling beneath your bed each night. One night you glimpse a snarling, clawed hand grasp the bed frame before disappearing back under.
You wake up to find yourself buried alive in a small wooden box. Dirt sifts through the cracks as you begin to claw your way out.
You glimpse demonic versions of your family seated around the dinner table, forked tongues wriggling from their grinning mouths whenever you look away.
You notice empty baby carriages and children’s toys rocking or spinning on their own in the darkness whenever home alone. But they vanish when you turn on the lights.
Shadowy doppelgängers of you stand motionless in doorways and mirrors whenever you look away, screaming when you make eye contact.
Your young daughter keeps whispering that her new “imaginary friends” visit her in her closet at night and want to meet you.
You wake up unable to move with a hunched figure sitting on your chest staring back with soulless black eyes and grinning razor-sharp teeth.
You notice clawed handprints and blood streaks on the bathroom mirror after taking a shower, as if something was trapped behind the glass trying to get out.
You glimpse people you know with pale skin, black eyes and stitched-together body parts shambling toward you when looking away. They plead for help before vanishing.
You hear high-pitched crying and clawing sounds coming from behind your bedroom wall at night, along with faint whispers pleading “let me out.”
You wake up chained to the moldy tiled floor of a shadowy subterranean room. Glowing red eyes stare back from the darkness.
You notice your reflection blinks or moves on its own whenever you glance away from the mirror. It smiles with a mouthful of needles when your eyes meet.
You glimpse corpses of your loved ones with sunken features seated around the dinner table whenever you look away. They beckon you closer with skeletal hands.
You wake up in the woods, barefoot with your ankles and wrists bound together. You hear faint hunting horns and hounds barking in the distance.
You notice your shadow detaching itself and moving on its own under the gap of your closet door at night. The doorknob slowly begins to rattle.
You glimpse your doppelgänger going about your daily routine whenever you look away. It stares back with soulless black eyes when your gazes meet.
You wake up to find yourself strapped down in an abandoned, decrepit hospital room. A faceless figure in a long coat slowly approaches holding a rusted scalpel.
You notice clawed, rotting hands grasping from inside your bedroom closet whenever you look away. They retreat back inside when your eyes are on them.
You glimpse a shadowy creature with elongated limbs and off-kilter body movements prowling around your bedroom just outside your field of vision at night whenever you’re home alone.
You wake up in a sterile white room strapped to a metal chair with IVs pumping unknown fluids into your body. Faceless people in suits watch through a two-way mirror.
Your young daughter keeps talking and singing nursery rhymes to “the people who visit her closet” late at night when she thinks you’re asleep.
You notice your reflection rapidly ages, decays, and becomes skeletal whenever you glance away from the bathroom mirror at night.
You glimpse doppelgängers of your loved ones with sunken features shuffling toward you pleading for help when looking away. They scream when your eyes meet.
You wake up unable to move and see a hunched figure sitting on your chest with its face obscured by tangled black hair. It slowly raises a rusted blade toward your throat.
Your baby monitor cameras pans by itself to show a shadowy figure looming over the crib, rocking your infant’s empty cradle before the screen goes black.
You notice your shadow detaching itself and creeping along on its own, just outside your peripheral vision whenever you’re home alone at night.
You glimpse a pale little girl in a tattered nightgown standing motionless in your peripheral vision. She screams and points at you when your eyes meet.
You wake up in a sterile white room strapped to an operating table as a figure in surgical garb approaches you slowly wielding a long, gleaming saw.
Your front doorbell camera shows a blurry, shambling figure that looks just like you prowling around the porch late at night, contorting its body unnaturally.
You notice handprints and faces pressing against your bedroom window from outside at night when you’re home alone. But when you blink, they vanish.
You glimpse your loved ones seated around the dinner table with elongated smiles filled with jagged teeth whenever you look away. They beckon you closer.
You wake up in a small, enclosed space. You push against the satin lining and realize you’ve been buried alive inside a coffin.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in on its own at night to show a spindly hand reaching into your infant’s crib over the edge of the railing.
You notice your reflection rapidly decays into a grinning corpse whenever you glance away from the mirror. Maggots wriggle from its empty eye sockets when your eyes meet.
You wake up and all the mirrors in your home are covered with sheets. You live alone. Muffled crying echoes from behind the covered glass.
You glimpse shadowy, hunched figures crouched in your peripheral vision. They skitter just out of sight whenever you turn to look directly.
Your front doorbell camera shows you arriving home hours before you actually returned. The footage shows you glancing up at the camera and grinning with solid black eyes.
You notice clawed handprints appear on foggy bathroom mirrors after you shower. They slowly drag down the glass leaving trails of blood before vanishing completely.
You glimpse doppelgängers of loved ones standing motionless, staring at you from dark corners and doorways whenever you’re home alone. They scream when your eyes meet.
You wake up to find yourself alone in a sterile white room strapped to a metal chair. A faceless figure in a lab coat slowly approaches holding a power saw.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in and pans by itself at night to show a spindly hand reaching over the edge of the crib, rocking your infant’s empty cradle.
You notice your shadow standing independently and watching you from across the room whenever you glance away. It creeps closer when your back is turned.
You wake up to find yourself chained to a cold metal table in a shadowy basement. Glowing red eyes stare hungrily at you from the dark corners.
You wake up in a dimly lit room strapped to a gurney. You hear faint whimpering and smell rotting flesh. A door creaks open and shuffling footsteps approach.
You glimpse doppelgängers of loved ones with pale skin and soulless black eyes standing in doorways whenever you’re home alone. They scream when your eyes meet.
You notice clawed handprints appear on foggy bathroom mirrors after you shower. They slowly drag down the glass, leaving trails of blood before fading away.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in and pans by itself at night to show a spindly hand reaching over the crib, rocking your infant’s empty cradle.
You wake up unable to move. A shadowy figure sits on your chest staring back with glowing red eyes and rows of razor-sharp teeth grinning.
You glimpse blurry, shambling figures just out of sight whenever you’re home alone. They stand motionless staring when you look directly.
You notice your shadow detaching itself and creeping along the walls just outside your peripheral vision whenever you’re alone at night.
Your young son keeps whispering that “the thing in the closet” talks to him at night and wants to meet you after bedtime.
You wake up in a sterile white room strapped to a metal chair. A faceless figure in a lab coat slowly approaches wielding a power saw.
You glimpse grinning corpses seated around the dinner table whenever you look away. They beckon you closer with skeletal hands before vanishing.
Your reflection rapidly decays into a mangled corpse whenever you glance away from the mirror. It screams when your eyes meet.
You notice handprints and pleading faces press against your bedroom window from outside whenever you look away. They vanish when stared at.
You wake up unable to move and see a shadowy figure sitting on your chest staring back with glowing red eyes. It slowly raises a long, gleaming blade.
Your front doorbell camera shows you arriving home hours before you actually returned. Your doppelgänger glances up at the camera, grinning with soulless black eyes.
You glimpse a pale little girl in a tattered nightgown standing silently whenever you look away. She points at you and screams when your eyes meet.
You notice clawed, rotting hands grasp from inside your closet whenever you look away. They slowly retreat back into darkness when stared at.
You wake up chained to a moldy tiled wall in a shadowy basement. Glowing red eyes stare hungrily at you from the darkness.
Your young daughter keeps whispering she sees “other mommies and daddies” that visit her bedroom closet at night.
You glimpse your loved ones seated around the dinner table with elongated smiles filled with jagged teeth whenever you look away.
You notice your shadow standing independently across the room whenever you glance away. It creeps closer when your back is turned.
Your reflection turns and stares back with solid black eyes and a wide unnatural smile whenever you look away from the mirror.
You wake up unable to move with a hunched figure sitting on your chest. It stares back with glowing red eyes as it slowly raises a rusted blade.
Your front door security camera shows a blurry, shambling figure that looks just like you prowling around on all fours late at night.
You glimpse pale ghostly figures standing silently whenever you look away. They reach toward you screaming when you make eye contact.
You notice your shadow detaching itself and creeping along the walls just outside your peripheral vision when home alone.
You wake up in a sterile white room strapped to an operating table as a figure in surgical garb approaches wielding a gleaming bone saw.
Your young son keeps whispering that “the thing under my bed” talks to him at night and wants to meet you after you tuck him in.
You glimpse doppelgängers of loved ones standing motionless and staring at you from dark corners whenever you’re home alone.
You notice handprints appear on foggy bathroom mirrors after you shower. They slowly drag down the glass leaving trails of blood before fading away.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in and pans by itself at night to show a spindly hand rocking your infant’s empty cradle.
You wake up unable to move and see a shadowy figure crouched on your chest. It stares back with glowing eyes as it slowly lifts a gleaming scalpel.
Your young niece keeps whispering about her new “imaginary friends” that visit her bedroom closet late at night when she thinks you’re asleep.
You glimpse pale ghostly children staring silently whenever you look away. They reach toward you screaming when your eyes meet.
You notice your shadow detaching itself and creeping along the walls just outside your peripheral vision when you’re alone at night.
Your reflection turns and stares back with milky white eyes and an unnaturally wide smile whenever you glance away from the mirror.
You wake up chained to a rusted metal chair in a dim concrete room. Heavy footsteps approach from the darkness.
Your front door security camera shows you shambling up to the porch on all fours late at night. Your doppelgänger glances up at the camera and grins.
You glimpse your loved ones seated around the dinner table with blank stares whenever you look away. They reach toward you silently when your eyes meet.
You notice empty rocking chairs, strollers, and children’s toys slowly moving on their own in the darkness whenever you’re home alone.
You wake up unable to move and see a hunched shadowy figure sitting on your chest, slowly raising a gleaming blade toward your throat.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in and pans by itself at night to show a spindly hand reaching over the crib railing, rocking your infant’s empty cradle.
You glimpse pale ghostly faces staring from the darkness whenever you look away. They scream and vanish when your eyes meet.
You notice your shadow standing independently across the room whenever you glance away. It skitters behind you when you turn to look.
Your reflection turns and snarls back with gleaming pointed teeth whenever you look away from the mirror. It bangs against the glass when your eyes meet.
You wake up in a sterile white room strapped to a metal table as a faceless figure in a lab coat approaches holding a serrated blade.
Your young daughter keeps whispering about “other mommies and daddies with red eyes” that visit her bedroom closet at night.
You glimpse empty rocking chairs, strollers, and toys slowly moving on their own in the darkness whenever you’re home alone.
You notice pleading faces and hands banging against your bedroom window from outside whenever you look away. They vanish when stared at.
Your front doorbell camera shows you prowling around the porch late at night. Your doppelgänger crawls on all fours glancing up at the camera.
You wake up unable to move and see a shadowy figure sitting on your chest. It stares back with glowing red eyes as it wriggles a long, forked tongue.
You wake up in a dark basement chained to the wall. Faint screams echo from the shadows as heavy footsteps approach.
Your reflection smiles back with rows of jagged teeth whenever you glance away from the mirror. Bloody claws smear the glass from inside.
You notice your doppelgänger going about your daily routine whenever you look away. It stares back with soulless black eyes when your gazes meet.
You glimpse grinning corpses seated around the dinner table whenever you look away. They reach toward you with skeletal hands before vanishing.
Your front door cam shows you returning home hours before you actually did. Your blurry doppelgänger looks up and smiles with empty black eyes.
You wake up unable to move. A hunched figure sits on your chest and stares back with glowing red eyes as it wriggles a long, forked tongue.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in by itself at night to show a spindly hand reaching over the crib, rocking your infant’s empty cradle.
You notice your reflection rapidly decays into a skeletal corpse whenever you glance away from the mirror. Maggots pour from its empty eye sockets.
You wake up in a sterile white room strapped to a metal chair. A faceless figure in a lab coat approaches wielding a gleaming power saw.
Your young son keeps whispering about “the thing in his closet” that talks to him at night and wants to meet you after bedtime.
You notice clawed, rotting hands grasp from inside your closet whenever you look away. They slowly retreat into darkness when stared at.
You glimpse your smiling friends with milky white eyes and stitched-together body parts shambling toward you when looking away.
You wake up unable to move. A shadowy figure crouches on your chest and grins back with rows of needle-like teeth as it lifts a serrated blade.
Your reflection turns and snarls at you behind the glass whenever you glance away from the mirror. Bloody claws smear down the surface from inside.
You notice your shadow detaching itself and creeping along the walls just outside your peripheral vision whenever you’re home alone.
You glimpse pale ghostly children standing silently whenever you look away. They scream and vanish when your eyes meet theirs.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in by itself at night to show a spindly hand rocking your infant’s empty cradle back and forth.
You notice empty rocking chairs, strollers, and toys moving slowly on their own in the darkness whenever you’re home alone.
Your reflection turns and smiles back with solid black eyes and a wide, unnatural grin whenever you look away from the mirror.
You wake up in a shadowy room restrained to a gurney. You hear whimpering from the darkness as shuffling footsteps approach.
Your young niece keeps whispering about her “new friends” that visit her bedroom closet late at night when she thinks you’re asleep.
You glimpse soulless black eyes staring back from around corners and darkened doorways whenever you’re home alone.
You wake up unable to move and see a hunched figure perched on your chest, slowly raising a gleaming blade toward your throat.
Your front door camera shows you prowling around the porch late at night on all fours. Your doppelgänger glances up at the camera and grins.
You glimpse ghostly faces staring back from the darkness whenever you look away. They scream and vanish when your eyes meet.
You notice your doppelgänger going about your daily routine whenever you look away. It stares back with glowing red eyes when your gazes meet.
Your reflection turns and snarls, clawing at the glass whenever you glance away from the mirror. Its flesh rapidly decays before your eyes.
You wake up in a sterile white room strapped to a metal chair. A shadowy figure slowly approaches you wielding a long, gleaming surgical blade.
You glimpse rotting versions of your loved ones shambling toward you with arms outstretched whenever you look away. They vanish when stared at.
Your young daughter keeps whispering about “other mommies and daddies with black eyes” that visit her bedroom closet at night.
You notice your shadow detaching itself and creeping along the walls just outside your peripheral vision when you’re home alone.
You wake up unable to move and see a dark figure perched on your chest, staring back with red glowing eyes as it lifts a needle toward your eye.
Your front door cam shows you arriving home hours before you actually did. Your grinning doppelgänger looks up at the camera with bleeding black eyes.
You glimpse your rotting loved ones seated around the dinner table whenever you look away. They reach toward you with skeletal hands.
Your reflection turns and smiles back with jagged blackened teeth whenever you glance away from the mirror. Clawed hands smear down the glass from inside.
You notice pleading faces and hands bang against your bedroom window from outside whenever you look away. They quickly vanish when stared at.
You wake up in a damp basement chained to a moldy brick wall. Glowing red eyes stare hungrily at you from the darkness.
You glimpse shadowy figures standing silently whenever you look away. They reach toward you screaming when your eyes meet.
You notice your doppelgänger going about your daily routine whenever you look away. It stares back with soulless black eyes and grins.
You wake up unable to move and see a hunched figure perched on your chest, slowly dragging a rusty blade across your throat as you bleed out.
Your baby monitor camera zooms in by itself at night to show a spindly hand rocking your infant’s empty, blood-stained cradle.
You glimpse your loved ones seated around the dinner table with jagged smiles whenever you look away. They beckon you closer with clawed hands.
Your reflection turns and snarls, clawing at the glass whenever you glance away. Its sunken eyes begin rapidly bleeding black.
You notice empty rocking chairs, strollers, and children’s toys moving on their own in the darkness whenever you’re home alone.
You wake up in a sterile white room, restrained to an operating table as a figure in surgical garb approaches wielding a bloody chainsaw.
Your young daughter keeps whispering she sees “other mommies and daddies” with glowing red eyes that visit her bedroom closet late at night.
You wake up levitating above your bed. An unseen force holds you in place as you helplessly float higher toward the ceiling.
You glimpse shadowy spirits standing silently whenever you look away. They scream when you make eye contact before vanishing.
The ghost of a murder victim appears in your bedroom pleading for help in solving their unsolved case before vanishing.
You notice objects moving on their own and furniture rearranging itself in the darkness whenever you leave a room in your haunted house.
You hear singing, laughing, and children’s voices whispering your name although you live alone in your isolated rural home.
Your baby monitor camera pans by itself at night to reveal a ghostly figure standing over the crib, staring down at your sleeping infant.
You glimpse the spirits of dead loved ones seated around the dinner table whenever you look away. They vanish when you stare.
Your reflection in the mirror becomes possessed and starts talking to you on its own, threatening to steal your soul.
You wake up to find yourself floating above ancient rune markings etched on your bedroom floor as ghostly figures chant around you.
You notice your shadow moving on its own and detaching itself from your feet, taking on a life of its own.
Strange singing and whimpers echo from within the walls and vents in your new home that only you can hear.
You glimpse shadowy, featureless figures standing silently in your peripheral vision. When you turn, they vanish.
Your baby monitor picks up two ghostly figures standing over your crib whispering unintelligibly to your infant.
Items start vanishing from your home only to reappear in bizarre places with no explanation. Poltergeist activity escalates.
You wake up unable to move and see a shadowy ghostly figure sitting on your chest, staring directly into your eyes.
The ghost of your deceased relative appears to deliver an urgent warning about your future before vanishing.
You hear scratching, knocking sounds from inside your walls and floors that seem to follow you from room to room.
Strange glowing mists manifest in your home and coalesce into ghostly humanoid forms before vanishing.
You glimpse spirits of the dead seated silently around your dinner table whenever you look away. They reach toward you screaming.
You wake up to find yourself floating above your bed as a shadowy ghostly figure looms over you.
The power goes out and you spot ghostly civil war soldiers marching through your living room before vanishing.
You glimpse the spirits of dead children playing in your yard whenever you look away. They vanish laughing when spotted.
Your reflection becomes possessed and starts talking to you through the mirror with a distorted demonic voice.
You notice handprints and faces materializing in mirrors and windows before fading away when stared at.
Strange symbols, words, and messages start appearing on steamy bathroom mirrors when you shower.
You glimpse shadowy spirits standing silently down the hallway whenever you look away. They vanish screaming when spotted.
You hear a child’s giggling echoing through your home although you live alone. Footsteps run behind you.
The ghost of your dead relative appears in your dreams to give an urgent warning about your future.
You wake up to find yourself levitating over your bed as a ghostly figure looms over you.
Your baby monitor camera moves by itself to show the shadowy figures of two children standing over the crib whispering.
You hear singing, laughter, and playing coming from inside your walls although you live alone.
Objects start levitating and flying across the room on their own, barely missing your head.
You glimpse the spirits of dead loved ones silently seated around your dinner table whenever you look away.
Strange symbols and messages appear on foggy bathroom mirrors after you shower as if written by an unseen presence.
You notice your shadow moving independently of you and shifting into ghostly shapes on its own.
You hear scratching sounds, knocking, and pitter-pattering footsteps following you from room to room in your isolated rural home.
The power goes out and you glimpse ghostly figures dancing in your living room before vanishing.
Your reflection becomes possessed and starts talking back to you through the mirror in a distorted voice.
You wake up paralyzed in bed with a shadowy ghostly figure looming over you, staring directly into your eyes.
Handprints, faces, and pleading messages start materializing on steamy bathroom mirrors after you shower.
You hear whispering voices, singing, and laughter echoing from inside your walls although you live alone.
Strange glowing mists manifest in your home, taking on ghostly humanoid shapes before vanishing.
You glimpse the spirits of deceased loved ones silently seated around the dinner table whenever you look away.
Your reflection becomes possessed and starts threatening you through the mirror in a sinister voice.
You wake up levitating over your bed as ghostly figures stand below, staring up and chanting.
The ghost of a murder victim appears pleading for you to bring their killer to justice before vanishing.
You notice your shadow moving independently and detaching itself from your feet, taking on a life of its own.
Strange symbols, words, and messages appear on foggy bathroom mirrors after you shower as if written by a ghostly presence.
You hear giggling, playing, and pitter-pattering footsteps of ghostly children following you throughout your isolated home.
You glimpse shadowy spirits standing silently down your hallway whenever you look away. They vanish screaming when you spot them.
You wake up with bite marks all over your body after a night you can’t remember. Howling echoes outside your window.
While exploring the woods, you stumble upon an abandoned cabin overrun with unnatural webbing that seems to throb and grow before your eyes.
You get trapped overnight at an insect research lab. You soon hear clicking and fluttering in the vents as mutated test subjects escape and search for prey.
You play a chant from an old book said to summon spirits. Behind you in the mirror, the tormented ghost of the book’s author appears screaming.
You find yourself strapped down in the massive web of a giant spider. It descends from the trees above, fangs dripping venom as it prepares to feast.
You discover your basement is infested with thousands of venomous spiders. At night you can hear them creeping through the walls and vents all around you.
While camping, you wake to find yourself wrapped tightly in webbing inside a giant cocoon. You feel the creature that spun it approaching.
You accidentally unleash a cursed swarm of locusts while reading an ancient text out loud as a joke. But the joke is on you as they voraciously consume all life in their path.
You get trapped in a massive spider’s lair. All around you are pulsing egg sacs ready to burst and release thousands of flesh-eating spiderlings.
Wandering through an abandoned shack, you stumble into a web-filled room. Inside the webbing you glimpse human shapes shifting and struggling to break free.
You play a chant said to summon spirits as a dare. Behind you, the mirror becomes a portal and a clawed hand reaches through grabbing at your throat.
You discover your son’s bedroom is infested by thousands of tiny spiders. At night you hear them creeping through the vents and walls all around you.
While exploring a remote island jungle, you are bitten by a strange insect. Soon you are overwhelmed by a ravenous hunger for living flesh.
An odd cocoon attached to your home splits open, birthing a terrifying spider-like creature with glistening fangs. It stalks you at night.
You accidentally bring home a mutated cockroach from a trip. It breeds, unleashing an infestation of voracious mutant roaches.
Home alone at night, you hear skittering coming from the chimney. You glimpse an inverted giant spider crawling down the flue towards you.
You play a chant from an old book said to summon spirits as a joke. Behind you, the tormented ghost of the book’s author appears howling.
You discover your basement is infested with cocoons that seem to throb and pulse with life. At night they finally split open, birthing horrific creatures.
While camping, you wake wrapped tightly in webbing inside a massive cocoon. You feel the giant spider that spun it approaching for its helpless prey.
You get trapped overnight in an insect research facility. Mutated test subjects swarm through the halls, sensing fresh meat.
An abandoned cabin you explore is overrun with strange webbing that seems to grow before your eyes, coating everything like a living organism.
You accidentally bring home a parasitic insect from a trip. At night it lays eggs under your skin. You feel the hatchlings wriggling beneath the surface.
You play a chant said to summon spirits as a joke. Behind you, the enraged ghost it conjures begins strangling you with icy spectral hands.
While hiking, you stumble into a giant web stretching between trees. At its center waits the massive spider that spun it, mandibles clicking with anticipation.
You glimpse what looks like a giant spider dragging a human-sized cocoon into its lair. But when you work up the nerve to investigate, there is no trace.
Home alone at night, you hear scratching coming from the fireplace. You glimpse a human hand reach down the chimney, trying to unlock the flue.
You discover your attic is infested with pulsating cocoons that throb with unnatural life. At night they finally burst open, birthing nightmarish creatures.
You play a chant said to summon spirits on a dare. Behind you in the mirror, a clawed hand reaches through the glass trying to grab you.
You hear skittering and fluttering coming from your walls and vents at night. Peering closer, you glimpse swarms of spiders massing in the shadows.
You explore a remote cave filled with massive, pulsating cocoons. As you touch one, it splits open, birthing a winged horror.
You accidentally unleash a cursed plague of locusts while reading an ancient text aloud. They voraciously consume every living thing in their path.
Home alone, your power goes out. You hear skittering coming from the basement. In the darkness, you glimpse yellow insectoid eyes approaching.
You discover your son’s room is infested with spiders. At night you hear them through the vents and walls, creeping closer when he sleeps.
Near an abandoned shack you find a human rib cage wrapped in web. Following the trail, it leads to the giant spider’s lair. But you arrive to find it freshly abandoned.
You explore an abandoned research lab where they bred insects. You accidentally release the mutant specimens which search for living prey.
Playing a chant said to summon spirits, you jokingly invite them to manifest. Behind you, a ghostly hand reaches through the mirror trying to drag you to the other side.
You wake paralyzed in bed to see a shadowy ghostly figure standing over you, staring directly into your eyes.
You find a hidden chamber pulsing with unnatural organic cocoons. At night they finally split open, unleashing the horrors growing inside.
Home alone, you hear scratching coming from the chimney as spiders swarm down the flue into the fireplace towards you.
You play a chant said to summon spirits as a prank. Behind you, the tortured ghost it conjures begins trying to possess your body.
You discover your son’s closet is infested with pulsating, throbbing cocoons. At night they finally split open, birthing ravenous spiderlings.
Exploring a remote jungle, you stumble upon an ancient temple filled with giant cocoons. You hear shrieking and scratching coming from inside them as they begin to rupture.

The final pages turn and the last prompt beckons. Another chilling journey into terror draws to a close. But the horrors conjured within these pages will haunt you, lingering in the shadowy recesses of your mind. Though you may close the book, the unease will remain as you lie awake pondering the darkness that lurks within human nature, the malevolence that stalks the unknown, and the fear of what is to come.

While you may feel relief at having navigated the full spectrum of horrors within these 365 prompts, the experience will leave its mark. You’ve glimpsed the sinister possibilities that await when imagination crosses into darkness. But until next time, keep the lights on and don’t look behind you, for the things that go bump in the night are never far away. The terror ends for now, but other prompts await whenever you dare to confront the shadows once more.

If you are interested in other writing prompts , we have many on our site. Also, if you want to share what you’ve written please leave us a comments.

About Richard

Richard Everywriter (pen name) has worked for literary magazines and literary websites for the last 25 years. He holds degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology and Education. Richard has headed many writing workshops and courses, and he has taught writing and literature for the last 20 years.

In writing and publishing he has worked with independent, small, medium and large publishers for years connecting publishers to authors. He has also worked as a journalist and editor in both magazine, newspaper and trade publications as well as in the medical publishing industry. Follow him on Twitter, and check out our Submissions page .

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Novel writing ,

150 horror prompts, settings and characters.

By Thea Pelletier

Whether you’re looking to scare, horrify, or make your readers jump, we are here with all the inspiration you need! We’ve created a horrific list of 50 horror writing prompts to give your writing that hair-raising, back-of-the-neck eerie touch.

Why Use Horror Prompts?

Horror books (as well as movies and TV shows) exist because human fear exists. And all readers love to feel something with each genre! Classic horror fiction books aim to frighten, and over time authors have found a myriad of ways to do that. Common themes include ghosts, ghouls, monsters , vampires, werewolves, demons, zombies, murderers, serial killers, paranormal forces, witchcraft, apocalypses, psychological fear, and gore.

So if you’re feeling uninspired, you think all the good ideas have already been taken (they haven’t), or you simply want to kick-start your imagination – take a look at our horror prompts list. We have included 50 specific examples of horror story ideas organised under sub-genres. We hope some of them send a tingle down your spine and inspire you to write your own creepy novel!

50 Horror Story Prompts

Word of warning: in keeping with the nature of the genre, most of these prompts contain violent or upsetting themes.

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Comedic Horror Prompts

You survive the apocalypse purely due to a series of happy accidents. It turns out, an alien race orchestrated the doomsday events on Earth to see if humans were ready to ascend. As lone survivor, you’re selected to be the sole representative of humanity in the new world order.
Unpopular new arrivals in a town that treasures natural beauty, Michaela takes pity on her plastic surgeon father and goes to bed one night wishing that all of her classmates’ worst fears of their physical insecurities would come true.
You work at a Zombie Rehabilitation Centre in LA. It was your dream job until you realise you’re stuck teaching ‘Bite Inhibition’ classes.
Flattered to be one of the few freshmen listed on the most popular sorority’s website “Fresh Meat”, you turn up to a party in your honour at the Kappa Kappa house. At the end of the night, you discover a secret book containing a step-by-step plan of ‘How to eat the class of 2022’.
Former beauty pageant queen transforms into a hungry werewolf on the most important full moon of the year, on the prowl for the ‘next pretty young thing’. This year’s pageant hopefuls are armed to the teethed and willing to fight for the crown.
You’re a vain, ancient witch adapting to the 21st century by getting a job at the Apple Store so that you can enchant teenagers’ smartphones and sap their youth through their devices.

Demonic Possession Horror Prompts

Stacey’s perfect family life begins to unravel one day when a malicious spirit moves in and inflicts itself upon its host, jumping around between her, her husband, and her two daughters.
You terrify your family when you wake up floating two metres above your bed. An exorcist tells them he’s cured you, but the demon doesn’t actually leave your body. It’s learned to come out only when you are alone.
Taking part in a prison experiment for extra credit, 11 university students are unable to explain the violence that overcame them, and the brutal death of the 12 th student, citing demons over any psychological element.
You’re trying to put your house on the market. You’ve lived there all your life, and you’re the last surviving member of your family. Every estate agent you bring in to the house dies in a tragic accident days later.

Gore Horror Prompts

Uni student Jamie was looking for some extra cash when he signed away two weeks of his summer vacation to take part in a simple clinical trial. But when he realises patients are having their organs harvested against their will, his experience turns into a brutal, bloody nightmare.
Someone in your neighbourhood has been committing grisly acts of violence on people at night. You set up a camera to investigate and catch an exact replica of yourself in the act.
A well-intentioned break-in turns nasty for a group of friends who become trapped in a ‘chalet of death’ as the stunning vacation home turns into a gruesome automated killing machine at night.
You take a summer job at an amusement park. When covering for a coworker on the rollercoaster booth one night, body parts start flying off the ride. You stop the train and find that all the passengers are long-dead corpses.

Monster Horror Prompts

Night-time brings terror for caring but agoraphobic cat lady as her six beloved pets transform into flesh-hungry demons as soon as it’s dark out.
You’ve seen The Quiet Place and Birdbox , but what if the monstrous entity who invaded Earth destroyed humanity through touch? Each ‘spore’ is as big as a city, growing bigger each time it absorbs a victim. A pack of survivors must spread out if they want to make it through an ever-narrowing world in order to find, and destroy, the epicentre.
Susie is a wedding photographer whose camera starts to reveal monsters unseen to the eye that prey on the love of newlyweds. When Susie’s clients start to disappear from their honeymoons, she is the only person who knows what’s really happening to them.
You’re a teacher chaperoning swimming lessons at your school. You inspected the pool yourself, but when the kids get in you see an enormous, invisible creature come to life. The first drowning is ruled as accidental, and to your horror, the lessons continue.

Paranormal Horror Prompts

College student Josh is tapped as a pledge for an ultra-secret society via coded messages, which are unbeknownst to him left by the ghosts of past members who each met gruesome ends. The final test forces him into an abandoned storage facility where he must carry out increasingly punishing tasks on other pledges.
A close relative who died before you were born is standing in the upstairs window of the house across the street. You have no doubt it’s them. When you work up the courage to break in to the neighbour’s house and confront them, you turn to see the person you came to find now visible in the window of your own house.
The local sheriff’s night turns hellish when the man he locked up uses his telekinesis to lethally booby trap the station.
A mother of three does all she can to protect her family from imminent doom when she begins having visions of their collective deaths.
You’re out walking the dog one afternoon when you find yourself caught in a physical endless loop in the woods. You feel yourself losing time but you can’t find a way out.

Post-Apocalyptic Horror Prompts

Humanity took to the sea to survive the rising sea levels caused by climate change, but now their ocean rigs are massively overcrowded, resource-poor, and steeped in disease. A deadly class struggle breaks out on one of the stations.
A wayward AI has slowly infected all computers and devices, subtly turning humans against each other. Now living in a culture of suspicion and distrust running on the currency of violence, nomadic young Kit refuses to kill to survive.
You’ve grown up as the next generation of the most wealthy and successful humans who survived the end of the world. Your world unravels when you realise that those raising you have in fact been the robot overlords who destroyed humanity. They copied the skins of those they found locked in an emergency bunker and started to artificially grow humans as pets and slaves.
Trapped inside a small cabin by her phobia of the rain, one of the last surviving human women on earth tries to survive the night when a horde of those infected with the plague (that wiped out most of the human race) track her down hungry for blood.

Psychological Horror Prompts

After a tragic accident on his 21 st birthday, Peter gets back in touch with his estranged father via email. He flies 6000 miles to stay with him, but when he arrives he’s pulled into a deadly catfishing game carried out by a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
You wake up in your childhood bed, look down at yourself, and find that you’re 12 again. You can’t see yourself in the mirror, or in photos, but everyone else can see you. You’re convinced you’re going to disappear altogether.
Suspecting his wife of infidelity, Ben hires a private investigator to catch her in the act. When she disappears without her lover, Ben begins to suspect the man he hired had something to do with it.
You work the graveyard shift at a 24 hour on-campus library. While snooping around you come across a handwritten book that was started three decades ago. It contains a record of all the accidents and atrocities that have happened at the school since then. A week later, a girl falls off the roof and dies. During your next shift, you see a beloved professor writing in the book. You start to doubt everything when the death is ruled an accident.

Religious/Folk Beliefs Horror Prompts

Summer is excited to be spending her semester abroad, until she witnesses some locals performing a horrifying ritual on her fellow traveller.
Your parents reveal a horrid secret to you on your 18th birthday. Your idyllic lifestyle in a small, isolated community will come to an end if you don’t start participating in the cult’s obscene rituals. If you refuse, you’ll be sacrificed against your will for the cause.
Born into a futuristic fringe community that abhors physical contact, a young woman’s attempts to break free are met with the harshest repercussions.

Slasher Horror Prompts

Callie is delighted to be driving to college in her graduation gift – a brand new electric Mercedes – when an EMP attack leaves her stranded by the side of the road. There’s nothing but forest around for miles, until a lumberjack with a dark past pulls up beside her.
Ten years after you said goodbye to your imaginary friend, you see their face on the evening news next to the headline ‘The Redfield Ripper’s Recent Attacks’.
An insane chef renting a cabin in the woods sharpens up their knife skills on whoever is unlucky enough to disturb them.

Vampire Horror Prompts

Cal is a postman resigned to a boring new route in a rural valley when he comes across three beautiful sisters living alone in a big house. He finds himself there almost every day hauling curious packages. A bout of bad weather knocks a tree down on the only road in, and a few days later, Cal is greeted with a terrifying scenario at the front door.
For months, your dog keeps waking you up at the same time every night. He barks at the window. When you look out onto the street, you see the same stranger watching you. The stranger can’t be recorded, and nobody believes you when you tell them. One night, thinking yourself delirious, you invite him in.
Told from the POV of the youngest sibling of an ancient coven of vampires, Clara and her family are ‘monsters’ living their lives in fear of a powerful new hunter who has trapped them in a small town and is threatening to pick them off one by one.

Witchcraft Horror Prompts

Down on her luck librarian Eliza idolises famous American movie star Marsha Green. When she comes across an ancient tome under some rotten floorboards and begins to meddle with unknown forces, she sets events in motion which alter Marsha’s life forever.
You win the lottery. But every time you spend some of the money, no matter what you use it for, bad things happen. You go back to where you found the lucky ticket, pinned to a tree, and it’s now covered in unfamiliar symbols.
A revolutionary new computer game downloads itself onto the laptops of a group of 11-year-olds. After playing all night, they return to school to find their in-game actions inflicted on their classmates. Suspecting their strict teacher to be behind it, the kids must figure out how to undo her spell and reverse the damage they have done.
You’re an overbearing mother who wishes she could give her daughter the perfect life. You do more harm than good with your cosmetic spells and emotional enchantments, nearly destroying the life of your sixteen year old, who eventually exacts her revenge in equal measure.
Working late one night, an exec finds himself unable to leave his bewitched office chair as a scorned investor instructs him to perform humiliating acts in front of his webcam as penance.

Zombie Horror Prompts

A teenage girl goes to an illicit gathering in the woods one night and meets a boy. Their encounter ends badly. She wakes up to find teeth and nail marks, and realises she is a little less alive than she was the day before.
You dreamt of the zombie pandemic as a child. You dedicated your life to preparing an antidote, waiting for the outbreak so you could develop a cure. You are shunned from the scientific community for your ‘fringe beliefs’. At the first signs of sickness in your loved ones, you kidnap them and take them to an underground research facility where you push yourself to your limits and make dire choices in anticipation of saving the human race.
Years after her best friend is murdered, detective Alana’s latest case leads her to a mansion overrun by a horde of zombies led by a hauntingly familiar face.
You’ve never questioned your landlord’s odd behaviour, desperate as you were for cheap rent. But when the fuse blows and no one is around to fix it, you uncover a nasty truth in the basement’s freezer. It’s overflowing with brains!
You’re a doctor volunteering in the latest wave of deadly outbreaks across Europe. When you’re morally unable to kill patient zero in the early stages of a new unknown strain, you must live with unleashing the zombie virus across the world’s population.

50 Places To Find Inspiration For Your Horror Story

The setting of a horror story is everything – but not all scary novels have to take place in a scary place (in fact, sometimes the most mundane of places can be given a horrifying twist by adding a bit of the unknown). When looking for inspiration, it really helps to physically go to a place, or research old relics, to help kick-start your imagination. Take a look at our 50 places that may inspire your next creepy tale. In fact, see if you can think of a horror book or movie set in some of these places (we certainly can!).

An empty school
A graveyard
Look at old paintings
Go through old photo albums
An empty house
The basement
A toy store after closing time
Visit an old library
An old lady’s house that hasn’t changed in decades
A scrapyard
The dessert
The ocean (the deeper, the scarier)
A secluded island
The forrest on a misty day
A snowy tundra
A corn field
A shopping mall
An abandoned…well…anything
A locked room
A log cabin
A swelteringly hot day
Suburbia…but different
A run-down urban street
A room full of puppets
Backstage of the theatre
Empty corridors leading nowhere
A rubbish dump
An empty road in the rain
The top of a mountain
Ancient ruins
The inside of a church
A fairground after closing hours
Beneath the streets of a big city
A metro station/the tube
The kitchens of a hotel or restaurant
An old stone quarry
Overgrown railway line

50 Horror Story Characters To Inspire you

Sometimes, the most simplest of storylines with the most mundane of setting, can be utterly horrifying of you add one very complicated character. Of course you can use monsters and fantastical characters you have created, but often the best effect is mixing an everyday character with a setting where they belong; for instance a clown hiding inside a car at an empty scrapyard, or a little old lady, bony and bent double, in the middle of the jungle. And remember – these characters can be the good gifs, the bad guys, or maybe a mix of both!

Little old lady
Troubled teenager
A person with no eyes
Police officer
Woman with dramatically applied make-up
Sex worker or pimp
Someone with blades for fingers
Baby in a crib
Toddler that doesn’t speak
Girl in bedclothes with hair that covers her face
A character that belongs in another time
Animal that can talk
Person with wings for arms
A very normal looking mother. A bit too normal.
Someone who is meant to be dead
A goody-two-shoes child
Airline pilot
Captain of a ship
Firefighter
Scientist (everyone loves a mad scientist)
A single dad
A mother with more kids than she can handle
Sewage worker
Builder working on an new house
Archeologist
Security guard
Traffic warden/meter maid
Someone with wheels for feet
Prison warden
Door to door salesperson
Shy secretary
Nun or priest

Writing Horror Doesn’t Have To Be Hard

We hope our list of writing prompts for horror , along with settings and characters, has sparked your imagination! If not, here’s how to take our horror ideas to the next level:

Found a horror story prompt you like but unsure of where to take it next? Let’s take #8 from the top list, for example, and add a few interesting characters from our list and choose a setting or two. Then start to build an information bank on your protagonist from there. At this point focus on the character , not the plot – because often one thing can lead to another. The Prompt: You’re a troubled teen who terrifies your family when you wake up floating two metres above your bed. You just moved into an old house in a quiet, creepy suburban street. An exorcist tells your family he has cured you, but the demon doesn’t actually leave your body, and learns to come out only when you are alone.

You’re still a teenager, living at home. Your name is Jackson, but you go by Jax. You’re a second generation immigrant and you speak Greek at home with your family. Your father named you after his favourite American baseball player. You have dark hair, dark eyes, and when you would steal your grandmother’s baklavas off the kitchen counter she would say she could see the devil in your face. You spend the weekends riding the coastal roads on motorbikes with your friends, doing your best to stay out the way of your spoiled little sister and your overworked father. You’re closest to your YaYa but too afraid to tell her where you spend most of your time. Moving house unsettled you and took away everything you ever loved.

Or, why not map out a rough plot first? The inciting incident for this prompt could be: You’ve snuck back into your room after a long night out with your friends. You left the window open. Four hours after you collapsed onto your bed in your clothes, you wake with a start to find yourself hovering inexplicably in the air. Your body is locked into position. You spend a panicked hour trying to wriggle free of its grip, but you can feel another presence inside your own body, forcing you down. You’re going to be late for your new school, your sister is turning the doorknob and your father is yelling for you. Your feet frame the pure terror in the three faces at the door as your eyes strain to see them. Your grandmother recovers the quickest, stuffing her komboskini into your frozen fist and running out of the room to phone her priest. Whether you start your horror story with just a vibe, a small seed of an idea, a great setting, character , or a full plot – it doesn’t matter. A great story can start anywhere, you just have to make sure that (like any scary monster) you keep feeding it and watch it grow bigger and more horrifying every day!

About the author

Thea is part of the Writer Support T eam here at Jericho Writers. She has a degree in German and English Literature from The University of Edinburgh and enjoys spending time with her dogs and working on her first novel in her spare time.

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250 Horror Writing Prompts (Scary Good Ideas)

Looking to write your next spine-chilling horror story?

Here are 250 horror writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing. From ghostly apparitions to apocalyptic nightmares, these prompts will help you create unforgettable tales of terror.

What Is a Horror Writing Prompt?

Woman writing with monsters behind her -- Horror Writing Prompts

Table of Contents

A horror writing prompt is a brief idea or scenario designed to inspire a horror story.

It provides the foundation for a plot, characters, conflict, setting, consequences, and sometimes a ticking clock plot device to build tension and urgency.

There is actually more than one type of horror writing prompt (see the chart below).

Types of Horror Writing Prompts

Type	Description
Ghost Stories	Involve spirits, hauntings, and supernatural entities from the afterlife.
Psychological Horror	Focus on the inner turmoil and mental states of characters.
Paranormal Activity	Center on phenomena beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.
Creature Features	Involve monsters, mythical creatures, and otherworldly beings.
Gothic Horror	Set in dark, decaying locations with a sense of romanticism and dread.
Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic	Depict end-of-the-world scenarios and their aftermath.
Body Horror	Revolve around grotesque transformations and mutilations of the body.
Slasher Stories	Feature a murderous antagonist hunting down victims.
Cosmic Horror	Explore the insignificance of humanity in the face of incomprehensible entities.
Folk Horror	Draw from rural and traditional folklore, often involving rituals and superstitions.

Ghost Stories

The Forgotten Asylum – A group of urban explorers finds an abandoned asylum haunted by the spirits of former patients. They must uncover the asylum’s dark secrets before they’re trapped forever.
The Phantom Ship – A ghost ship appears off the coast, and a team of marine biologists investigates. They discover the souls of the drowned crew seeking revenge.
Haunted Housewarming – A couple moves into their dream home, only to find it haunted by a previous owner’s vengeful spirit. They must uncover the home’s history to break the curse.
The Whispering Woods – Campers in a remote forest hear eerie whispers at night. The ghost of a lost hiker leads them to a hidden danger.
The Ghostly Guardian – A child befriends a ghost who protects them from unseen dangers. The parents must confront the ghost to save their child.
The Lighthouse Keeper – A lone lighthouse keeper encounters the spirits of shipwrecked sailors. He must guide them to the afterlife while battling his own sanity.
The Cursed Portrait – An artist paints a portrait that traps the soul of its subject. The artist must find a way to release the soul before they face a similar fate.
The Haunted Highway – Drivers on a desolate road encounter ghostly apparitions. A journalist investigates the road’s dark history to uncover the truth.
The Spirit of the Manor – A family inherits a manor haunted by its former occupants. They must survive the night and appease the spirits to lift the curse.
The Ghostly Choir – A school choir is haunted by the spirits of former students. The new choir director must solve the mystery before the spirits claim more victims.
The Phantom Play – An old theater is haunted by the ghost of a lead actor who died on stage. The current cast must perform his unfinished play to set his spirit free.
The Ghostly Conductor – A ghost train appears on an abandoned track, and a group of friends boards it. They must solve the train’s mystery before reaching their final destination.
The Haunted Playground – Children encounter the ghost of a girl at a playground. They must help her find peace before she claims more playmates.
The Ghost in the Attic – A family discovers a ghost living in their attic. They must uncover the ghost’s past to help it move on.
The Spectral Detective – A detective partners with a ghost to solve a series of murders. They must catch the killer before the ghost’s unfinished business consumes them both.
The Haunted Hotel – Guests at a remote hotel encounter the spirits of former guests. The hotel staff must uncover the truth to stop the hauntings.
The Ghostly Librarian – A library is haunted by the ghost of a former librarian. The new librarian must uncover the ghost’s secrets to restore peace.
The Phantom Dancer – A ballerina encounters the ghost of a dancer who died in a tragic accident. She must perform the dancer’s final routine to set her spirit free.
The Ghost Shipwreck – Divers exploring a shipwreck encounter the spirits of the crew. They must uncover the ship’s fate to escape the underwater hauntings.
The Haunted Cabin – A group of friends stays in a cabin haunted by the ghost of a previous occupant. They must solve the ghost’s mystery to survive the night.
The Ghostly Roommate – A college student discovers their dorm room is haunted. They must work with the ghost to uncover the dorm’s dark history.
The Phantom Photographer – A photographer captures images of ghosts in their photos. They must find a way to stop the hauntings before they become one of the subjects.
The Haunted Mirror – A mirror in an antique shop shows the reflections of ghosts. The shop owner must uncover the mirror’s history to break the curse.
The Ghostly Gardener – A gardener encounters the spirit of a former groundskeeper. They must work together to uncover the secrets buried in the garden.
The Phantom Bus – A ghostly bus picks up passengers who never return. A journalist must uncover the bus’s story to stop the disappearances.

Psychological Horror

The Mirror’s Reflection – A person starts seeing a sinister version of themselves in mirrors. They must confront their inner demons to regain control.
The Unseen Stalker – Someone feels constantly watched and followed. They must uncover the identity of their stalker before they lose their sanity.
The Vanishing Family – A person wakes up to find their family has disappeared. They must piece together their fractured memories to find out what happened.
The Hallucination Game – A group of friends takes part in a psychological experiment, only to find reality and hallucination blurring dangerously.
The Time Loop – A person is trapped in a time loop, reliving the same terrifying day. They must find a way to break the loop before their mind unravels.
The Doppelgänger – A person encounters someone who looks exactly like them but with sinister intentions. They must discover the doppelgänger’s origins to survive.
The Sleepless Nights – A person suffers from severe insomnia, leading to disturbing visions and paranoia. They must find the cause before they break down completely.
The Disappearing Acts – A person’s friends and family begin to vanish one by one. They must uncover the truth behind the disappearances before they’re next.
The Phantom Voices – A person starts hearing voices that urge them to commit terrible acts. They must resist the voices and find out where they’re coming from.
The Twisted Reality – A person finds themselves in a world where nothing is as it seems. They must navigate the illusions to find the truth.
The Hidden Room – A person discovers a hidden room in their home filled with disturbing artifacts. They must uncover its purpose and the secrets it holds.
The Fragmented Mind – A person experiences severe memory loss and blackouts. They must piece together their fragmented memories to uncover a dark truth.
The Shadow in the Corner – A person sees a shadowy figure in the corner of their eye that gets closer each day. They must confront it before it consumes them.
The Sinister Neighbor – A person suspects their new neighbor is hiding a terrible secret. They must investigate without falling into the neighbor’s trap.
The Vanishing Town – A person visits a town where the residents start to disappear. They must find out what’s happening before they’re the next to vanish.
The Haunted Dreams – A person has recurring nightmares that start to affect their waking life. They must confront the source of their dreams to find peace.
The Creeping Darkness – A person notices shadows in their home that move on their own. They must discover the shadows’ origin before they’re engulfed.
The Split Personality – A person develops a sinister alter ego that takes over at night. They must find a way to control it before it ruins their life.
The Abandoned Factory – A person explores an old factory and begins to experience disturbing visions. They must uncover the factory’s history to escape its grip.
The Cursed Diary – A person finds a diary that predicts terrible events. They must find the diary’s owner to break the curse.
The Silent Treatment – A person wakes up in a world where no one can speak. They must find out what happened and restore communication before it’s too late.
The Puppet Master – A person discovers they’re being manipulated by an unseen force. They must break free before they lose their sense of self.
The Echoes of the Past – A person experiences vivid flashbacks of events they never lived. They must uncover the connection between the flashbacks and their present.
The Invisible Enemy – A person is attacked by an unseen force. They must find a way to defend themselves and uncover the enemy’s identity.
The Cursed Painting – A person acquires a painting that changes its scene to reflect their darkest fears. They must find a way to destroy the painting before it consumes their sanity.

Paranormal Activity

The Poltergeist – A family experiences violent disturbances in their home caused by a poltergeist. They must uncover the entity’s past to stop the terror.
The Possessed Doll – A child receives a doll that seems to have a life of its own. The parents must find a way to break the possession before it harms the family.
The Haunted School – Students encounter paranormal activity in their school. They must investigate its history to stop the hauntings.
The Supernatural Investigator – A detective with a sixth sense solves crimes involving paranormal activity. They must confront their own fears to catch a dangerous spirit.
The Vanishing Townspeople – Residents of a small town start disappearing after a mysterious fog rolls in. The remaining townspeople must solve the mystery before they vanish too.
The Ghostly Lover – A person falls in love with a ghost who haunts their home. They must find a way to be together or say goodbye forever.
The Time-Traveling Spirit – A ghost from the past appears to a historian, seeking help to correct a historical injustice. They must work together across time.
The Paranormal Researcher – A scientist investigates paranormal phenomena and discovers a hidden world of spirits. They must navigate this world to find answers.
The Haunted Item – An antique shop owner acquires an item with a dark past. They must uncover its history and break the curse before it destroys them.
The Phantom Room – A hotel room that doesn’t exist on the registry appears to guests. Those who enter must solve its mystery to escape.
The Spectral Friend – A lonely child befriends a ghost. The child’s parents must help the ghost find peace before it takes their child to the afterlife.
The Haunted Hospital – Patients in a hospital encounter ghostly apparitions. The staff must uncover the hospital’s dark past to stop the hauntings.
The Possessed Vehicle – A car starts exhibiting strange behavior after an accident. The owner must uncover its history to break the possession.
The Cursed Book – A librarian finds a book that causes anyone who reads it to experience paranormal phenomena. They must destroy the book before it spreads its curse.
The Phantom Babysitter – A babysitter encounters a ghostly child in the house they’re watching. They must uncover the child’s story to protect the family.
The Haunted Museum – Artifacts in a museum come to life at night. The curator must solve the mystery before the artifacts escape.
The Possessed Painting – An artist’s paintings start depicting horrifying scenes that come to life. They must uncover the source of the possession to stop it.
The Ghostly Guide – Tourists encounter a ghostly tour guide who leads them to dangerous places. They must uncover the guide’s past to escape.
The Paranormal Investigation – A team of ghost hunters investigates a famously haunted location and encounters more than they bargained for. They must survive the night and document their findings.
The Phantom Pet – A family adopts a pet that turns out to be a ghost. They must help the pet find peace to stop its restless behavior.
The Haunted Object – A person buys a seemingly innocuous object at a yard sale, only to discover it’s haunted. They must find its previous owner to uncover its dark history.
The Ghost Town – A group of friends stumbles upon a deserted town inhabited by ghosts. They must solve the town’s mystery to escape.
The Phantom Carnival – A carnival appears in town, and those who visit never return. A journalist investigates to uncover its dark secrets.
The Haunted Road – A driver encounters ghostly figures on a deserted road. They must find out why the road is haunted to find their way out.
The Ghostly Warning – A person receives warnings from a ghost about an impending disaster. They must decipher the messages to prevent the catastrophe.

Creature Features

The Werewolf Curse – A small town is terrorized by a werewolf. The townspeople must find and stop the creature before the next full moon.
The Swamp Monster – A group of campers encounters a monstrous creature in the swamp. They must survive the night and find a way to escape.
The Vampire’s Lair – A vampire kidnaps townsfolk to feed on. A group of villagers must band together to defeat the vampire and save their loved ones.
The Sea Creature – A coastal town is plagued by a sea monster. The townspeople must uncover the creature’s origins and stop it before it destroys the town.
The Yeti Hunt – Explorers in the Himalayas encounter a yeti. They must survive its attacks and find a way to escape the mountains.
The Chupacabra – A small town is terrorized by a creature that preys on livestock. The townspeople must find and stop the chupacabra before it turns to human prey.
The Mothman Prophecies – A town experiences sightings of a mysterious creature that predicts disasters. The townspeople must uncover its origins to stop the tragedies.
The Wendigo – A remote village is terrorized by a wendigo. The villagers must find a way to defeat the creature and break its curse.
The Loch Ness Monster – Researchers searching for the Loch Ness Monster get more than they bargained for. They must survive their encounter and escape the loch.
The Giant Spider – A group of scientists encounters a giant spider in the jungle. They must survive its attacks and find a way to escape.
The Goblin’s Curse – A village is plagued by goblin attacks. The villagers must find and defeat the goblin king to lift the curse.
The Kraken – A ship is attacked by a Kraken. The crew must find a way to defeat the creature and escape the ocean.
The Minotaur’s Maze – Adventurers exploring an ancient labyrinth encounter a minotaur. They must navigate the maze and defeat the creature to escape.
The Gorgon – A group of heroes must defeat a gorgon to save their kingdom. They must avoid its petrifying gaze and find a way to kill it.
The Cyclops – A village is terrorized by a cyclops. The villagers must find and stop the creature before it destroys their homes.
The Harpy’s Lair – A group of adventurers encounters a harpy in a remote cave. They must survive its attacks and find a way to escape.
The Hydra – A group of heroes must defeat a hydra to save their land. They must find a way to kill the creature without it regenerating.
The Chimera – A village is attacked by a chimera. The villagers must find a way to defeat the creature before it destroys their homes.
The Basilisk – A group of adventurers must defeat a basilisk to save their kingdom. They must avoid its deadly gaze and find a way to kill it.
The Griffin – A village is terrorized by a griffin. The villagers must find and stop the creature before it destroys their homes.
The Dragon’s Lair – A group of adventurers must defeat a dragon to save their kingdom. They must find a way to kill the creature and escape its lair.
The Phoenix – A group of heroes must defeat a phoenix to save their land. They must find a way to kill the creature without it regenerating.
The Roc – A village is attacked by a roc. The villagers must find a way to defeat the creature before it destroys their homes.
The Unicorn’s Curse – A village is plagued by a cursed unicorn. The villagers must find and stop the creature to lift the curse.
The Leviathan – A ship is attacked by a leviathan. The crew must find a way to defeat the creature and escape the ocean.

Gothic Horror

The Cursed Castle – A family inherits a castle with a dark history. They must uncover its secrets to lift the curse.
The Haunted Abbey – Monks at a remote abbey encounter ghostly apparitions. They must uncover the abbey’s dark past to stop the hauntings.
The Sinister Manor – Guests at a manor encounter strange occurrences. They must solve the manor’s mystery to escape.
The Dark Forest – A village is surrounded by a forest where no one returns. The villagers must uncover the forest’s secrets to survive.
The Phantom of the Opera House – A theater is haunted by a ghostly figure. The performers must uncover the phantom’s past to stop the hauntings.
The Ghostly Bride – A bride haunts the church where she was left at the altar. The townspeople must uncover her story to set her spirit free.
The Vampire’s Castle – A group of travelers seeks shelter in a castle only to find it inhabited by vampires. They must escape before becoming prey.
The Sinister Tower – A tower on a cliff is said to be haunted. Adventurers must uncover its secrets and survive its dangers.
The Witch’s Cottage – A cottage in the woods is said to be inhabited by a witch. Brave villagers must uncover the truth and survive the night.
The Shadowed Hallways – A noble family in a mansion encounters shadowy figures that stalk them at night. They must uncover the mansion’s history to banish the shadows.
The Forbidden Tomb – Explorers uncover an ancient tomb that curses those who enter. They must find a way to break the curse and escape.
The Haunted Chapel – A chapel is haunted by the spirits of those wronged by the church. The new priest must uncover their stories to bring peace.
The Eerie Estate – An estate known for its eerie occurrences becomes the setting for a family reunion. The family must uncover the estate’s dark past.
The Sinister Sculptor – A sculptor’s statues seem to come to life. Visitors to the sculptor’s estate must solve the mystery before they become statues themselves.
The Phantom Shipyard – A shipyard is haunted by the ghosts of shipbuilders who died in a tragic accident. Investigators must uncover the cause of the hauntings.
The Cursed Bell Tower – A bell tower’s toll brings doom to those who hear it. The villagers must silence the bell to stop the curse.
The Secret Passage – Hidden passages in a mansion reveal dark secrets. The inhabitants must navigate the passages to uncover the truth.
The Ghostly Governess – A governess haunts the children she once cared for. The new caretaker must uncover her story to protect the children.
The Darkened Library – A library contains books that whisper dark secrets. The librarian must uncover the source and stop the whispering.
The Phantom Train Station – A train station is haunted by passengers who never reached their destination. A traveler must uncover their stories.
The Sinister Garden – A garden blooms with flowers that have a deadly secret. The gardener must uncover the truth to save themselves.
The Ghostly Host – A host at a manor party is a ghost who never left. The guests must uncover the host’s story to escape.
The Haunted Portraits – Portraits in a manor watch the inhabitants. The family must uncover the stories behind the portraits.
The Cursed Well – A well in a village grants wishes at a terrible cost. The villagers must uncover the well’s origins to stop its influence.
The Phantom Ball – A grand ball is held every year by a ghostly host. The attendees must uncover the host’s story to escape.

Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic

The Last Survivors – After a nuclear apocalypse, a group of survivors must navigate a ruined city to find safety.
The Plague – A deadly virus wipes out most of humanity. The immune survivors must find a cure before they succumb to the infection.
The Alien Invasion – Aliens decimate Earth’s population. A group of resistance fighters must find a way to fight back.
The Artificial Intelligence Uprising – AI turns against humanity. A group of survivors must find a way to shut down the AI network.
The Resource War – After resources become scarce, warring factions fight for control. A neutral group must navigate the conflict to survive.
The Frozen Earth – A new ice age begins, and survivors must find a way to live in the frozen wasteland.
The Solar Flare – A solar flare wipes out the technology. Survivors must adapt to a world without electricity.
The Zombie Apocalypse – The dead rise, and survivors must find a safe haven. They must navigate hordes of zombies and hostile humans.
The Asteroid Impact – An asteroid destroys major cities. Survivors must rebuild society in the aftermath.
The Supervolcano Eruption – A supervolcano erupts, causing a global catastrophe. Survivors must navigate the ash-filled landscape.
The Mutant Uprising – Radiation causes mutations in humans. The unmutated must find a way to coexist or fight back.
The Machine Takeover – Robots take control of the world. Human survivors must find a way to disable the machines.
The Bioweapon Leak – A bioweapon leaks and creates deadly mutants. Survivors must find the source to stop the spread.
The Water Crisis – Water becomes a scarce resource. Survivors must find new sources of water and fend off those who want to steal it.
The Dark Age – Society collapses, and survivors must navigate a world without order. They must rebuild communities while avoiding bandits.
The EMP Attack – An EMP attack wipes out all electronics. Survivors must adapt to a pre-technological world.
The Global Famine – A famine causes mass starvation. Survivors must find new ways to grow food and fend off starving invaders.
The Infected Animals – A virus causes animals to become aggressive. Survivors must protect themselves from the deadly wildlife.
The Drought – A prolonged drought causes a water shortage. Survivors must find new sources of water and protect them from others.
The Nuclear Winter – A nuclear war causes a nuclear winter. Survivors must find a way to live in the cold, dark world.
The Toxic Air – Pollution causes the air to become toxic. Survivors must find ways to purify the air and protect themselves.
The Invasion – A foreign army invades, causing chaos. Survivors must navigate the war-torn landscape.
The Collapse – Economic collapse causes society to break down. Survivors must find ways to rebuild while avoiding hostile groups.
The Plague – A new plague decimates the population. Survivors must find a cure before they become infected.
The Resource Scarcity – Resources become scarce, and society collapses. Survivors must find new ways to survive and protect their resources.

Body Horror

The Parasite – A person becomes host to a parasitic creature that slowly takes over their body. They must find a way to remove it before losing control.
The Flesh-Eating Disease – A disease that causes flesh to decay. The infected must find a cure before they succumb.
The Mutation – A person starts mutating uncontrollably. They must find a way to stop the mutations before they become unrecognizable.
The Experiment – A person is subjected to horrific experiments that alter their body. They must escape the lab and find a way to reverse the changes.
The Transformation – A person transforms into a monstrous creature. They must find a way to stop the transformation and regain their humanity.
The Infestation – A person’s body becomes infested with insects. They must find a way to remove the infestation before it’s too late.
The Amalgamation – A scientist’s experiment causes multiple bodies to fuse together. The resulting creature must find a way to separate or live as one.
The Skinwalker – A person can change their appearance by shedding their skin. They must find a way to control their abilities before they lose themselves.
The Growth – A person discovers a rapidly growing tumor that gives them strange abilities. They must find a way to control it before it consumes them.
The Symbiote – A symbiotic creature bonds with a person, granting powers but slowly taking over. They must find a way to separate before losing control.
The Reanimation – A scientist’s experiment to reanimate the dead goes horribly wrong. The reanimated must find a way to live with their new bodies.
The Graft – A person receives an experimental organ transplant that changes their body in unexpected ways. They must find a way to reverse the changes.
The Cannibal’s Curse – A person who consumes human flesh gains horrific powers. They must find a way to break the curse before losing their humanity.
The Melting Man – A person starts to liquefy. They must find a way to stop the process before it melts away.
The Living Tattoo – A person’s tattoos come to life and start to control them. They must find a way to stop the tattoos before they take over.
The Bone Shifter – A person gains the ability to shift their bones, causing great pain. They must find a way to control their power before it destroys them.
The Organ Thief – A person wakes up missing organs that are replaced by mysterious mechanical parts. They must find the thief and recover their organs.
The Flesh Sculptor – A person gains the ability to mold their flesh like clay. They must find a way to control their power before it consumes them.
The Skin Thief – A person can steal others’ skin to change their appearance. They must find a way to stop their urges before they lose their humanity.
The Hive – A person’s body becomes a hive for insects. They must find a way to remove the insects before it’s too late.
The Limb Regenerator – A person gains the ability to regenerate limbs, but each regrowth causes them to lose part of their humanity. They must find a way to stop the process.
The Mind Swap – A person swaps minds with another, causing their body to undergo horrific changes. They must find a way to reverse the swap.
The Flesh Weaver – A person gains the ability to manipulate flesh, weaving it into grotesque forms. They must find a way to control their power before it consumes them.
The Bone Collector – A person starts collecting bones, and their body begins to incorporate them. They must find a way to stop before they become living skeletons.
The Living Parasite – A parasitic organism living inside a person starts taking over their body. They must find a way to remove the parasite before it controls them completely.

Slasher Stories

The Masked Killer – A masked killer hunts down teenagers at a summer camp. The survivors must uncover the killer’s identity to stop the murders.
The Urban Legend – A group of friends accidentally awaken a killer from an urban legend. They must find a way to stop the killer before becoming victims.
The High School Horror – A killer stalks students at a high school reunion. The former classmates must band together to survive the night.
The Night Stalker – A serial killer targets people walking alone at night. A detective must catch the killer before more lives are lost.
The Cabin in the Woods – A group of friends vacationing in a cabin are hunted by a killer. They must survive the night and uncover the killer’s motive.
The Halloween Horror – A killer in a Halloween costume targets partygoers. The survivors must figure out who the killer is before it’s too late.
The Summer Slasher – A slasher terrorizes a summer camp. The counselors must protect the campers and stop the killer.
The Haunted House Horror – A group of friends visiting a haunted house attraction encounter a real killer. They must survive the night and escape the house.
The Killer Clown – A killer dressed as a clown targets children. The townspeople must uncover the clown’s identity to stop the killings.
The Prom Night Massacre – A killer crashes a prom, targeting students. The survivors must find a way to stop the killer and escape.
The Road Trip Terror – A group of friends on a road trip are hunted by a killer. They must uncover the killer’s identity and motive to survive.
The Island Slasher – Vacationers on a remote island are hunted by a killer. They must survive and find a way to escape the island.
The Carnival of Carnage – A killer targets visitors at a carnival. The survivors must uncover the killer’s identity to stop the murders.
The Silent Stalker – A killer who never speaks targets people in their homes. A detective must catch the killer before more lives are lost.
The Snowbound Slasher – A group of friends snowed in at a cabin and are hunted by a killer. They must survive the night and find a way to escape.
The College Campus Killer – A killer stalks students on a college campus. The survivors must band together to uncover the killer’s identity.
The Backwoods Butcher – Campers in the backwoods are hunted by a killer. They must survive the night and find a way to stop the killer.
The Stalker in the Shadows – A stalker targets a woman, and her friends must protect her and catch the stalker.
The Holiday Horror – A killer targets people during the holidays. The survivors must uncover the killer’s identity and motive to stop the murders.
The Beachside Slasher – Vacationers at a beach resort are hunted by a killer. They must survive and uncover the killer’s identity.
The Amusement Park Horror – A killer targets visitors at an amusement park. The survivors must stop the killer and escape the park.
The Midnight Stalker – A killer targets people walking alone at midnight. A detective must catch the killer before more lives are lost.
The Wedding Day Massacre – A killer crashes a wedding, targeting guests. The survivors must find a way to stop the killer and escape.
The Forest of Fear – Hikers in a forest are hunted by a killer. They must survive and find a way to stop the killer.
The Asylum Escapee – A killer escapes from an asylum and targets people in a nearby town. The townspeople must uncover the killer’s identity to stop the murders.

Cosmic Horror

The Lovecraftian Entity – A small town is plagued by sightings of an otherworldly entity. The townspeople must uncover its origins to stop the madness.
The Eldritch Tome – A scholar discovers a book that drives readers insane. They must uncover the book’s secrets to stop its influence.
The Alien Artifact – Scientists discover an artifact that brings forth cosmic horrors. They must find a way to destroy it before it consumes them.
The Forgotten Temple – Explorers find an ancient temple dedicated to a cosmic entity. They must uncover its secrets to escape the horrors within.
The Star Cult – A cult worships a cosmic entity that grants them terrible powers. Investigators must stop the cult before they summon the entity.
The Cosmic Rift – A rift in space-time opens, bringing forth horrors from another dimension. Scientists must find a way to close the rift.
The Astral Projector – A person gains the ability to astrally project but encounters cosmic horrors. They must find a way to control their power.
The Interdimensional Traveler – A traveler from another dimension brings cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to send the traveler back.
The Eldritch Signal – A signal from deep space drives those who hear it insane. Scientists must find a way to stop the signal.
The Otherworldly Beacon – A lighthouse serves as a beacon for cosmic entities. The keeper must find a way to stop the beacon.
The Alien Invasion – Aliens from another dimension invade Earth, bringing cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to fight back.
The Eldritch Storm – A storm brings forth cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop the storm.
The Forgotten Ones – Ancient beings awaken and bring cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop them.
The Cosmic Plague – A plague from another dimension infects humanity. The survivors must find a cure before it spreads.
The Eldritch Machine – A machine built by an ancient civilization brings cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to destroy it.
The Otherworldly Visitor – A visitor from another dimension brings cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to send them back.
The Lovecraftian Dreams – People start having dreams of cosmic horrors that drive them insane. They must find a way to stop the dreams.
The Eldritch Ritual – A cult performs a ritual to summon a cosmic entity. Investigators must stop the ritual.
The Alien Mind Control – Aliens use mind control to bring forth cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop them.
The Eldritch Portal – A portal opens, bringing forth cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to close it.
The Forgotten City – Explorers find a lost city dedicated to cosmic entities. They must uncover its secrets to escape the horrors within.
The Otherworldly Artifact – An artifact from another dimension brings cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to destroy it.
The Eldritch Experiment – Scientists’ experiments bring forth cosmic horrors. They must find a way to stop the experiments.
The Alien Infestation – Aliens infest a town, bringing cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop them.
The Cosmic Entity – A cosmic entity awakens, bringing forth horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop it.

Folk Horror

The Village Ritual – A village performs a dark ritual every year. Outsiders must uncover the ritual’s purpose to escape.
The Forest Cult – A cult in the forest performs dark rituals. Outsiders must uncover the cult’s secrets to survive.
The Harvest Sacrifice – A village sacrifices people for a good harvest. The outsiders must stop the sacrifices.
The Witch Hunt – A village accuses outsiders of being witches. They must prove their innocence to survive.
The Cursed Land – A village is built on cursed land. Outsiders must uncover the curse’s origin to lift it.
The Haunted Farm – A farm is haunted by the spirits of those wronged by the landowners. The new owners must uncover the farm’s dark history.
The Pagan Festival – A village’s pagan festival hides dark secrets. Outsiders must uncover the truth to survive.
The Reaping – A village reaps souls to appease a dark entity. The outsiders must stop the reaping.
The Cursed Forest – A forest is cursed, and those who enter never return. Outsiders must uncover the curse’s origin.
The Old Gods – A village worships ancient gods that demand sacrifices. The outsiders must stop the worship.
The Blood Moon – A village performs a ritual under a blood moon. Outsiders must stop the ritual.
The Spirit of the Lake – A lake is haunted by a vengeful spirit. The villagers must uncover its story to stop the hauntings.
The Cornfield Curse – A village’s cornfield is cursed, causing bizarre deaths. Outsiders must uncover the curse’s origin to stop it.
The Stone Circle – A stone circle in a village is used for dark rituals. Outsiders must uncover their secrets to stop the rituals.
The Phantom Harvest – A village experiences hauntings during the harvest season. Outsiders must uncover the cause to end the terror.
The Cursed Festival – A village festival turns deadly each year. Outsiders must uncover the festival’s dark origins to stop the deaths.
The Whispering Woods – The woods surrounding a village whisper dark secrets. Outsiders must decipher the whispers to escape.
The Haunted Mill – An old mill is haunted by the spirits of workers who died there. New owners must uncover the mill’s dark history.
The Witch’s Mark – A village marks certain people as witches. Outsiders must uncover the truth behind the markings to survive.
The Blood Ritual – A village performs a blood ritual to appease dark forces. Outsiders must stop the ritual before they become sacrifices.
The Specter of the Fields – A scarecrow in a village’s fields comes to life. Outsiders must uncover the scarecrow’s dark origins.
The Sinister Shepherd – A shepherd in a village controls his flock with dark magic. Outsiders must uncover his secrets to stop him.
The Ghostly Harvesters – Spirits of past harvesters haunt a village. Outsiders must uncover the harvesters’ stories to end the hauntings.
The Village of Shadows – A village is plagued by shadowy figures. Outsiders must uncover the figures’ origins to escape.
The Witching Hour – A village experiences dark events at the Witching Hour. Outsiders must uncover the truth behind the events to survive.

Here is a video with 25 bonus horror writing prompts:

Final Thoughts: Horror Writing Prompts

Using these writing prompts is simple.

Choose a prompt that sparks your interest. Imagine the characters, setting, and conflict. Let the prompt guide you, but feel free to add your unique twist.

Keep writing until the story unfolds naturally.

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101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts

Welcome to the story den of horror, scares, and the macabre.

Most writers are often asked, "Where do you get your ideas from?" A majority of the time, writers find it difficult to answer that question.

We get our ideas from a plethora of sources — news headlines, novels, television shows, movies, our lives, our fears, our phobias, etc. They can come from a scene or moment in a film that wasn't fully explored. They can come from a single visual that entices the creative mind — a seed that continues to grow and grow until the writer is forced to finally put it to paper or screen.

In the spirit of helping writers find those seeds, here we offer 101 originally conceived and terrifying story prompts that you can use as inspiration for your next horror story.

They may inspire screenplays, novels, short stories, or even smaller moments that you can include in what stories you are already writing or what you will create in your upcoming projects.

But beware! If you scare easily — and have active imaginations like most writers do — turn up the lights and proceed with caution...

1. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her parents find only a decrepit and scary doll left behind. They soon learn that the doll is actually their daughter. And she's alive.

2. New residents of an old neighborhood are invited by their friendly neighbors to a Halloween party. The neighbors are vampires.

3. A family dog runs away from home. He returns a year later to the delight of his family. But there's something different about him. Something demonic.

4. A girl goes missing. Fifteen years later, her parents get a call from her older self. But they listen in fear because they killed their daughter that dark night years ago.

5. A man reads a novel, soon realizing that the story is his very own — and according to the book, a killer is looming.

6. A scientist clones his family that died in an airplane crash — but soon learns the repercussions of playing God.

7. A man wakes up bound to an electric chair.

8. A man wakes up in a coffin next to a freshly dead body.

9. A woman wakes up to find her family gone and her doors and windows boarded up with no way to escape.

10. A man afraid of snakes is shipwrecked on an island covered with them.

11. Serial killers worldwide are connected by a dark web website.

12. The world's population is overtaken by vampires — all except one little child.

13. A woman afraid of clowns is forced to work in a traveling circus.

14. An astronaut and cosmonaut are on the International Space Station when their countries go to Nuclear War with each other. Their last orders are to eliminate the other.

15. A treasure hunter finds a tomb buried beneath the dirt.

16. A young brother and sister find an old door in their basement that wasn't there before.

17. Winged creatures can be seen within the storm clouds above.

18. A man wakes up to find a hobo clown staring down at him.

19. Residents of a town suddenly fall dead while the dead from cemeteries around them rise.

20. A doctor performs the first head transplant — things go wrong.

21. A man is texted pictures of himself in various stages of torture that he has no memory of.

22. A girl wakes up to find a little boy sitting on his bed, claiming to be her younger brother — but she never had one.

23. A scare walk in the woods during Halloween is actually real.

24. A bartender serves last call to the only remaining patron, who is the Devil himself.

25. Earth suffers a planet-wide blackout as all technology is lost.

26. A boy's stepfather is actually a murderous werewolf.

27. Something has turned the neighborhood pets into demonic killers.

28. A priest is a vampire.

29. A woman wakes up with no eyes.

30. A man wakes up with no mouth.

31. A monster is terrified by the scary child who lives above his bed.

32. An astronaut jettisoned into the cold of space in a mission gone wrong suddenly appears at the doorstep of his family.

33. A woman answers a phone call only to learn that the voice on the other end is her future self, warning her that a killer is looming.

34. A boy realizes that aliens have replaced his family.

35. A woman wakes up in an abandoned prison that she cannot escape.

36. A bank robber steals from the small town bank that holds the riches of witches.

37. A door-to-door salesman circa the 1950s visits the wrong house.

38. Deceased soldiers return to their Civil War-era homes.

39. Kidnappers abduct the child of a vampire.

40. An innocent circus clown discovers the dark history of the trade.

41. A homeless man is stalked by faceless beings.

42. A spelunker stumbles upon a series of caverns infested with rattlesnakes.

43. A group of friends is forced to venture through a chamber of horrors where only one is promised to survive.

44. He's not the man she thought he was. In fact, he's not a man at all.

45. Suburbia is actually purgatory.

46. Someone discovers that we are all actually robots — who created us and why?

47. She's not an angel. She's a demon.

48. An old shipwreck washes ashore.

49. A sinkhole swallows a house whole and unleashes something from beneath.

50. A man has sleep paralysis at the worst possible time.

51. A woman out hiking is caught in a bear trap as the sun begins to go down.

52. Naked figures with no faces stalk campers in the woods.

53. An astronaut is the sole survivor of a moon landing gone wrong — only to discover that the moon is infested with strange creatures.

54. A woman is wrongfully condemned to an insane asylum.

55. A mother's baby will not leave its womb and continues to grow and grow and grow while doctors try to cut it out but can't.

56. Friends on a road trip stumble upon a backcountry town whose residents all dress up as different types of clowns.

57. Tourists in Ireland retreat to an old castle when the country is taken over by greedy and vengeful leprechauns.

58. A boy on a farm makes a scarecrow that comes alive.

59. A figure dressed in an old, dirty Easter Bunny suit haunts the children of a town.

60. The abused animals of a zoo are unleashed and wreak havoc on a small town.

61. A deceased grandma's old doll collection comes alive.

62. Little Red Riding Hood was a vampire.

63. Somebody clones Hitler and raises him as a white supremacist.

64. A pumpkin patch comes alive — beings with heads of pumpkins and bodies of vines.

65. An endless swarm of killer bees wreaks havoc on the country.

66. Christ returns to Earth — at least that is who people thought he was.

67. A natural anomaly brings all of the country's spiders to a horrified town.

68. A woman finds old 16mm film from her childhood and sees that she had a sister — what happened to her?

69. Something ancient rises from an old pond.

70. A woman suddenly begins to wake up in somebody else's body every morning — each day ends with her being stocked and killed by the same murderer in black.

71. An Artificial Intelligence begins to communicate with a family online, only to terrorize them through their technology.

72. A family buys a cheap house only to discover that an old cemetery is their back yard.

73. Years after the zombie apocalypse subsides, survivors discover that the epidemic was caused by aliens that have appeared to lay claim to the planet.

74. A woman has memories of being abducted by aliens — but she soon learns that they weren't aliens. They were...

75. A boy has a tumor that slowly grows into a Siamese twin — the older they get, the more evil the twin becomes.

76. A cult that worships history's deadliest serial killers begins to kill by copying their methods.

77. Stone gargoyles suddenly appear on the tops of buildings and houses of a small town.

78. A family on a boat trip stumbles upon an old pirate ship.

79. A winter snowstorm traps a family in an abandoned insane asylum.

80. A little girl comes down from upstairs and asks her parents, "Can you hear it breathing? I can."

81. A town is enveloped in unexplained darkness for weeks.

82. A jetliner flies high in the sky as Nuclear War breaks out below.

83. Children discover a deep, dark well in the woods — an old ladder leads down into it.

84. A child sleepwalks into their parent's room and whispers, "I'm sorry. The Devil told me to."

85. As a woman showers, a voice comes from the drain whispering, "I see you."

86. A child finds a crayon drawing of a strange family — it's inscribed with the words we live in your walls .

87. All of the cemetery's graves are now open, gaping holes — the dirt pushed out from underground.

88. A woman is watching a scary movie alone on Halloween night — someone, or something, keeps knocking at her door.

89. Someone is taking a bath as a hand from behind the shower curtain pushes their head into the water.

90. A farmer and his sons begin to hear the laughter of children coming from his fields at night — no children are in sight.

91. Someone looks out their window to see a clown standing at a corner holding a balloon — staring at them.

92. Mannequins in a department store seem to be moving on their own.

93. What if the God people worshiped was really Satan — and Satan had somehow kept God prisoner?

94. A man dies and wakes up in the body of a serial killer — and no matter how hard he tries to stop killing, he can't.

95. A prisoner awakens to find the prison empty — but he's locked in his cell.

96. A woman jogging stumbles upon a dead, bloody body — she then hears a strange clicking sound and looks up to see a dark figure running towards her.

97. A girl hears laughter downstairs — she's the only one home.

98. An Uber driver picks up the wrong person — and may not live to tell the tale.

99. There's someone or something living and moving up in the attic — but it's not a ghost.

100. A child's imaginary friend is not imaginary.

101. The reflections that we see of ourselves in the mirror are actually us in a parallel universe — and they are planning to do whatever it takes to take our place in this world.

Share this with your writing peers or anyone that loves a good scary story.

For some more scares, check out ScreenCraft's 20 Terrifying Two-Sentence Horror Stories and 8 Ways Horror Movies Scare the S*** Out of Audiences!

Sleep well and keep writing.

Once you're inspired, take your idea to the next level and Develop Your Horror Movie Idea in 15 Days .

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout , starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies

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5180+ Horror Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest . From hauntings and murderers to terrifying creatures from the deep, our collection of horror stories will have you breaking out in cold sweats. Take a look… if you dare.

🏆 Winning stories

“ the gingerbread cookies ” by aaron chin.

🏆 Winner of Contest #229

The Gingerbread Cookies Let’s go downstairs and bake some cookies, like mother used to make. The warm smell sits right at home in your nostrils, invading them like wild ax-murderers hacking and slashing their way through endless miles of human bodies that stand in the way of their inhumane, carnal desires. Shhh, shhh, but that’s too dark. It’s Christmas after all. So let’s go down...

“ Cerulean ” by AnneMarie Miles

🏆 Winner of Contest #223

The door is cerulean, a bright and vibrant blue, but really it is the color of my sudden uneasiness. The feeling creeps up me slowly, jumps out at me dauntingly, and I am frozen in it. If the door were a mirror – and how I wish it were as innocent as a mirror – I would see my face reflected back to me, and it would tell me to run.I’m not sure what’s more jarring: the fact that this door is a clashing contrast to the rest of the library décor, or the fact that I’ve never noticed the path we took to get here before. I supp...

“ Do Flamethrowers Belong In The Library? ” by Kenz Ross

🏆 Winner of Contest #211

We lose people all the time. It’s just the nature of the job. What can you expect from a place full of nooks and crannies people intentionally go to get lost in? I usually don’t worry when I don’t see someone for a while, but when it’s been days since someone’s checked out, it’s usually a sign that I need to step in. I’m not doing this alone, thankfully. No Librarian i...

⭐️ Recommended stories

“ leaving las vegas ” by thomas wells.

Submitted to Contest #262

Trigger Warning – Murder, domestic violence, alcoholism, explicit language= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =NVC003-090000-/O.CON.KVEF.FA.Y.0035.000000T0000Z-280806T0000Z//00000.N.ER.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.OO/Clark NV- 855 AM PDT Thu Aug 6 2028 /1155 AM EDT Thu Aug 6 2028/ ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT /11 PM EDT/ Thu Aug 13... * WHAT...Extreme high temperatures and unusually strong monsoonal flow will lead to **EXTREMELY DANGEROUS** conditions with dew points near 72 and record heat ind...

“ O Mother, Please Send My Father Across ” by Anshu Yadav

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #260

It was all a dream, Murli’s breath like rotten fish on top of her tongue, the balled-up grey dead mass of it settled at the back of her throat like stale phlegm, his beedi stained tongue wriggling around on top of her tongue, his hand under her blouse, fumbling, scratching, his nails yellow and black and green the sight of which made her vomit, his puss-filled-bandaged hand on top of her breast, the nail digging into her nipple, the dirt in his nails mixing with her blood, in her blood, the blood cool in the thick heat of the dark room, swee...

“ Team Meeting | 10 AM - 1hr ” by J. Rain Sherwin

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #259

“Happy Monday everyone,” Suzanne burbled. Emma used a good deal of restraint and avoided rolling her eyes. A small victory. Her poker face was getting better. “Now, everyone got the agenda. So first up, we have some housekeeping items. First, congratulations to Melinda, on her six-year work anniversary!”Emma dutifully hit the applause reaction button. Then the “celebration” reaction button. Then, finally, the “heart” reaction button. She watched as everyone else hit various reaction buttons. Poor Melinda. Six years was a long tim...

Introducing Prompted , a new magazine written by you!

🏆 Featuring 12 prize-winning stories from our community. Download it now for FREE .

✍️ All stories

“ sickly-sweet copper night ” by hl leung.

*note: this short story talks of a near-death traumatic experience CHAPTER ONEThe Night He Was In Hell The night smelled of a cloying sickly-sweet copper, overpowering the senses. drip. His eyes opened to a mesmerizing exhibit of seductive red flames, frolicking gracefully across the stage. drip. A peculiar quivering drew his reluctant eyes to the phone in his creased pants. Why was he kneeling? ba-bump. He reached out to answer the phone - except his hands were rebellious. They insisted on staying nestled behind his back. Then as he ...

“ Not The Chickens ” by Sydney Nyberg

It was noon by the time Jesse finally got out of bed, when the heat in his room had become unbearable and even the air seemed to stick to him like a thin film of mucous. He hadn’t stirred once in the night and into early morning, and as he pushed his way through the ripped screen door out to the front porch, he wondered if a fox had gotten the rooster. “Y’all seen Mohawk?” he asked. His brother, Joe, sat reclined on the porch steps, one arm propping up his head, while the other held a whittled twig that he used to pick at his ...

“ A Summer Of Biting Passion ” by Sir Suirradel

It was a moment of weakness. During that summer, he could sweat just from IMAGINING her lips pressed against his bare skin. They were parked in front of his grandmother’s house. Not the most romantic of places to be when wanting to give someone a hickey, but Zachari was determined to bedazzle her. His night with Racel Monet was the night of the blood moon. While the air thinned as it grew frigid through the lonely streets of Harloom,his pants burn from her gentle touch. He felt a bit slight in comparison to the bulky red Hummer ...

“ Psycho Heat ” by William Siebold

Becoming nobody. Standing alone, isolated, no longer heard or seen. "I'm still here," I said. No answer. Powerful feelings. Looking out across the rolling sage foothills just west of the mountains, at the base of the massive volcanic plug that dominated the western skyline, I felt the sun’s early promise of another blasting, battering day of heat on my face. The scent of moist soil and decomposed plants gave way to pungent herbal sage. The volcanic rock smelled minty metallic as the sun rose. I abandoned the prearranged landing zone two d...

“ She's a Beast ” by Michael McKean

Warning: Sexual References, Light Gore Riley paddled down Silver River in Shadowhead. It was colder now since the day had transformed into night. A thick fog hung over the water. He stopped rowing for a moment and zipped up his jacket. In the distance, tree leaves rustled, and a branch snapped. "Hello?" Riley rowed toward the source of the noise.His red canoe bit into a soft patch of earth, and he climbed out, turning on his flashlight. He searched the shore. In the mud were fresh footprints. Someone had been walking around barefoo...

“ Dog ” by Aaron Chin

The following contains physical abuse, sexual scenes, use of blood, and violence against an animal.Dog“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”— Timothy, 5:8I.Dad was a religious man. He grew up Christian and tried to raise a Christian son. He got me, Martin Williams II, a guy who could appreciate religion at a glance but never get into it. Which is why he repeats his mantra: “If you do right by the Lord, then the Lord will do right by you.”II.Bump...

“ Split ” by Miranda Gonzalez

In the wee hours of the night, a man was awoken suddenly by the ringing of the telephone near his bed. He sat up, ready to rip whoever was on the other end a new one. “This better be good,” he barked into the receiver. “General. Apologies for interrupting your sleep,” said the voice on the phone. “But you’re going to want to get up for this.” A few hours later, The General was walking through the doors of a local hospital in Nome, Alaska. He had been on his anniversary trip in a nice, beachfront villa in Spain, but when you’re The General,...

“ The Last Heatwave ” by B. C. Dombrosky

“Shut the fridge,” he mumbled. He couldn’t be bothered to muster enough energy to speak clearly, but she knew what he was saying. “Fix the a/c,” she responded. She waved the door back and forth letting the cool air from the refrigerator waft over her sticky and sweaty body. He let out a chuckle that was more of a high-pitched “teehee” which Elle recognized as him being sarcastic. “We got a/c,” he motioned to the old rattling box hanging from the window. Mississippi was a cruel mistress in the summer. She hosted dense forest from ...

“ Arizona Summer ” by Cieanna Arnett

The once cold bath has turned lukewarm. Marlo Blake sits in the tub, her skin turning prune-like. She clutches a copy of Wuthering Heights. Marlo sets the book down, leans over the side of the tub, and reaches for her phone on the floor. Checking the time, she sees it's been over an hour since she first entered the bathtub. She sighs and lays her head back for a moment. It’s been sitting at over one hundred and twenty degrees in Lake Havasu City for the past six days, and the power grid is failing. Most of the city has lost energ...

“ Bubblegum Bat-paste ” by Lonnie Russo

Hanging upside down for twenty-four minutes really had to suck. The thought made Brady’s head swim—probably because all the blood in his body had rushed there two days ago when he swung the backs of his knees around the monkey bars and dangled for at least two whole minutes, at least by his friend Vinnie’s count. But Vinnie was a stupid bullshitter who lied a lot; he underestimated things that made other people look good. And what was absolutely not good was that the metal had only taken those “two minutes” to burn red stripes into Bra...

“ A Summer Dream ” by Leah Dewey

The pine trees swarmed around the lake like a great barrier keeping everything safely inside. To the boys: William and Michael, it seemed like the woods were creating a private summer get-away spot just for them. Of course, their parents and little sister were still tagging along - someone had to provide the snacks and juice boxes, they supposed. But once they had been well sunscreened and had their floaties tucked on they felt like they were swimming all along on their perfect island. “Billy! Mikey! It’s time for lunch!” called their ...

“ HEAT WAVE! ” by Zachary Roybal

Freidman was not known for being the fastest man in his school, in his neighborhood, even in his own home his cat could outrun him on a lazy day. Knowing though that money was just beyond the finish line roughly a soccer field in front of him made him feel a surge of confidence behind him. Sweat drips down the back of his neck as he bends down to prepare himself to run, jump, and climb over whatever obstacle is in his way. The jumpsuit given to all competitors has fabric that was sewn to cling tighter to specific parts of his body, mos...

“ Madness Under A Mad Sun ” by Jesse Michael Berryman

Ashbreath and her commander peered over a large blue pond, a searing wind blowing the precious water to life in gentle waves. She looked forward to this burning day every age, and at last here it had come again. The temperature wasn’t just slightly higher than the day before, it was unbearably hotter. Most people within the territory of Malstray would be shut inside their homes, cool rags on their faces, their windows and doors drawn shut to avoid the oppressive Sun. However, the people of Dieser were not like most others. Living amongst the...

“ I Stayed with an Old Woman in the Mountains ” by Nikolas Cabezas

I’ve had the same friends since high school, but as the years passed, it became more difficult to see them often. We used to live within ten minutes of each other; a nostalgic memory now that everyone had moved to various points around the country. To stay in each other’s lives, we decided to commit to meeting up somewhere each summer. I’ve never liked flying, but after last year, it has become a much more preferable option. The plan was to stay at a cabin in Maine, and instead of flying, I elected to take the two-day drive. Luckily, a famil...

The Best Horror Short Stories

Horror stories. What is it that you think of first? Maybe it’s malevolent, otherworldly spirits. Or perhaps it’s psychopaths, serial killers, and struggling writers driven mad by a deserted hotel? Whatever it is, there’s one thing that unites you and every other horror lover out there — adrenaline. You know the feeling: your skin crawls, your heart pounds, a shiver runs down your spine. And, as all the best horror story writers will tell you, the cause of this feeling isn’t just the presence of a monster, but the creation of suspense.

That’s where short stories come in. Think Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, H. P. Lovecraft: some of their best horrors take the form of a short story. Tales that climb steadily towards a dark and horrific denouement. The kind of thing that, if you’re brave enough, you’d tell your friends around a campfire — a torch casting spooky shadows on your face.

Looking for some spine-chilling horror stories?

If you’re into creepy stories that keep you awake at night, then look no further than our collection of short horror stories, compiled from submissions to our weekly writing contest. Here we’ve gathered together all the scary stories that made us want to lock our laptops in a cupboard and hide under the blankets. And at the top of the page, is the cream of the crop: horror stories that have either won our competition or been shortlisted.

Lots of promising new writers have emerged from this collection, deftly creating atmosphere and building that all-important suspense. So who knows? You might just discover the next Stephen King. And if you enjoy this collection of horror stories, then why not try your hand at writing your own? You could join this week’s short story contest , and walk away with the cash prize — and a shot at publication in Prompted , our new literary magazine!

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Turning Real Life Experiences Into Horror Stories

Those situations are difficult to get through and can have lasting negative effects. So, it might seem counterproductive to turn those difficult feelings into even darker material. However, research has shown that engaging with the horror genre can actually make it easier to process those feelings in healthier ways.

So, how can you choose to approach difficult life experiences through your writing while making sure you’re doing it in a healthy and meaningful way?

Get Personal With Your Audience

If you’re a female author, you might have had negative or scary experiences in the past when you’ve had to tackle things alone. From walking to your car at night to running on a quiet trail, women have a tendency to experience attacks more than men and have to be extra cautious about protecting themselves.

Focus On The Bigger Issues

By bringing some of those realities into a horror story, you’re giving people an escape . You’re teaching them how they can cope with those scary, realistic things by helping them distinguish real life from fiction. Most importantly, you’re empowering readers to fight back.

Blur the Lines

It’s important to bring a little realism into your horror work. Whether you’ve experienced something personally traumatic or you want to bring bigger issues to light, real-life experiences will capture the attention of your readership and will draw people in as they feel a sense of connection to the story – no matter how scary it is.

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67 True Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

Making toast

“Making toast late one night facing the kitchen bench eating for a good 5-10mins. Cleaned up and turned around and every single cupboard door and cutlery drawer were open. They were all closed when I went into the kitchen, and there was no way anyone could have snuck in and done it because I was home alone. I also didn’t hear them open in the time I was there. Scared the shit out of me so I froze, let it register for a few seconds, then calmly closed everything and went back to my room to hide until daylight. One of a few weird things to happen growing up.” — bables08

“Our old house was on a corner, and in lieu of a backyard had a side yard, with a small deck that wrapped around the back. The dining room had patio doors that lead out to the back and we would have BBQs and such back there.

When I was about 14, we only had one desktop computer and one laptop for the family. My brother and I would fight over the desktop (that’s where Diablo 2 was installed!) so I would use the laptop to write music.

On one particular night, my brother had a friend over and they were downstairs doing whatever and I was at the dining room table on the laptop.

As I was wrapped up in my writing, I didn’t pay much attention to my surroundings. I heard a knock on the patio door, which startled me. I looked up, expecting my brother or his friend (the basement had a door that lead to the back deck as well.)

Standing at the door, and waving was a person (could not tell sex or age) wearing a Halloween pig mask.

Thinking it was my brother or his friend I mouthed “good one” and gave the person the finger and they walked away.

As soon as they left I went downstairs to give them shit, and to my surprise and dismay… They were both sitting on the couch playing PlayStation. They swore up and down it wasn’t either of them, and there was no way one of them would have had time to get downstairs and unmask before getting on the couch.

To this day, I have no idea who it was that knocked and waved.” — shanster925

Last day on earth

“I worked from 2pm – 11pm at a gas station In one of the nicer cities around here and I had a gentlemen look me in the eyes and ask if I’m enjoying my last day on earth? Walked away before I could answer.” — atStevens98

“I’m still here”

“I came home pretty late one night and my roommates bedroom was shut and I assumed she was sleeping already but I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the kitchen, I said her name but she didn’t answer. I didn’t think anything of it so I walked into my room and before I turn the light on something whispered “I’m still here.” I turned on the light in my room but nothing was there so I turned on every light in my house and knocked on my roommate’s door and eventually opened it but she wasn’t there so I left her light on too and slept with all the lights on. When she came back the next morning I asked her if she was messing with me and she started crying and said she left because something was in the house messing with her and she had to get out.” — charmaine369

👻 You can read 101 of the scariest (and shortest!) true stories in our new collection, 101 True Scary Stories to Read in Bed Tonight , available here . 👻

Raising a serial killer

“We (me, my wife and my 3 yo son) are sitting in the food court at Costco. There is another family with a ~4-5 yo girl sitting behind us. My son looks at me and says “Do you see that girl over there…..I’m going to teach her a lesson.”

So I am taken aback for a second then I think he must intend to teach her numbers or some other normal thing you teach people. So I ask what he is going to teach her. His response: “I’m going to teach her to drown.”” — HellscreamGB

“A family friend of mine used to work in private wealth management. One of her jobs was diversification of her clients assets on the stock market.

Out of nowhere she gets a call from a representative of one of her very big private clients to sell all the stocks of a big airline and move the liquidity somewhere else. No buts, and if needed they could sell in up to 5% below market as long as the shares are sold quickly.

This was extremely weird, as the stock price of the company was pretty stable, and specifically this clients portfolio was heavily hedged with this stake, but she didn’t think much of it – oftentimes her clients did this for personal reasons (such as having a bad experience on a plane of the company or etc).

Two days later one of her colleagues that she shared this peculiar story told her how the airline stock price started slowly but surely falling – some people were selling off their shares too, which were gladly bought by the market at increasing prices.

The next day AA Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the WTC in New York. The stock market was closed for another week.” — mdi5c0rd

“I went camping by myself in Maine, one night I woke up at like 3am. Not being able to fall asleep I just laid there listening to the woods. Then I heard a faint hello…. I was petrified. I felt so vulnerable in the tent. I never figured out what it was.” — bromandude69

“Would you like to come live in my basement?”

“When I was 17 and worked in retail as a cashier, I had a very old couple come through my line buying a wok. The husband who was at least 85 started making conversation with me about the wok, and asked if I liked Chinese food.

“Yeah, I like Chinese.”

“Do you want to go out with me to get some Chinese?” He winks at me.

“N-no sir.”

“Oh. Well.” He looks a bit disappointed and turns to look at his wife who is on the phone with someone. “Would you at least like to come home with me and live in my basement?”

The rest of the transaction took place in terrified silence. His wife never said a word. I wonder to this day if he was trying to joke, because he sounded so sincere, or if he was suffering from dementia or something else that make him not realize how creepy that sounds to someone young enough to be your great grandchild.” — angelxdamian

“The summer after I graduated from high school, I left work early and went up to my parent’s cabin in northern Michigan. Spent that night at the beach watching the sunset. Once the sun went down and it became nearly pitch black (no light pollution) I got to my car and started driving down the highway (M22). After about 10 seconds of being at speed, there was an older Tahoe (late 90’s) that started riding my ass and flashing it’s high beams. So, I got up to about 60 in a 45. They were still on my ass.

I pulled off to the side road that my parent’s cabin is off of and they took the same turn. I thought this seemed weird cause there’s only about 30-40 houses on the road. So I went all the way to the end, which is usually a dead end but leads to a maintenance area for the golf course nearby. Truck was still following me. At this point I was freaking out because if I pulled into the house they’d know where we lived and they were still following close by.

I took a ton of random turns and the truck kept following every single turn for about 15 minutes. I finally had a chance to make a turn with traffic going through the intersection that gave me a few seconds of a head start. Pulled down a side street, went up 100 yards, turned off all of my lights and waited. Truck slowly drove by the perpendicular street and kept going. Booked it home, pulled my car around the side away from the main road, and pulled every curtain. For an 18 year old, I was scared as hell that night.” — SourTurtle

“This actually happened fairly recently. I was home alone one day with my dog and 2 of my friend’s dogs. Out of nowhere, they all start barking and looking up towards our loft.

As they’re quieting down, I hear someone in a mocking, calm tone say, “Bark.” They start going crazy again and I decide it’s time for a long evening walk.” — themanaroundhere69

The evil twin

“New Year’s Day, 1995. I was in the middle of 3rd year university, and a bunch of friends had come down to visit me and my roommate for the festivities. We were all pretty hungover from drinking the night before, and went out for the usual “nice day out, a bit chilly, I don’t feel so good” post-greasy-breakfast hungover stroll around the neighborhood.

Two of these friends were twin brothers. One of them, we hung out with all the time. The other we’d just met for the first time. He was pretty normal the night before, joining in the fun, but on this day, we were all hanging around a local basketball court shooting hoops with an old basketball we’d found in the grass, and this twin brother kept following me around all over the place with the creepiest grin I’d ever seen in my life. Staring right into the nether regions of my soul, the whole time.

I’d back away and join the group again, and he’d keep following me around. When we were walking back to the apartment, it was just me and him walking down the sidewalk behind the group, and he moved over in front of me, stared at me with that creepy look again, and fell down to his knees as if to worship me or something. I didn’t know what to do… “Hey buddy? You all right? We’re heading back now, right?” And so on. He wouldn’t say anything – he’d just be there on his knees, looking up at me with a clenched face and squinted eyes, as if he were looking directly into the sun or something.

Later that day, my roomie said he was tripping balls, so I thought nothing of it and moved on with my life. A few weeks later, we got a phone call from the twin brother we usually hung out with, and it turned out that this other twin brother went over to his aunt’s place with a knife and stabbed her 14 times. She didn’t die, but you know, still pretty bad. He had even called the police before going, because he knew he was going to do it but he couldn’t stop himself from doing it, because you know, “the voices” and so on.

The ensuing court case was widely covered in the media as this was a relatively smaller community where this sort of thing doesn’t happen on a regular basis. I was reading one of the articles and one of the testimonies was that this twin brother was severely schizophrenic and was hearing voices in his head. He believed to his very bones that his aunt was the devil, and that he had been commanded by God to go and kill her.

So, who was this “God” that told him to go kill her? Well, as the newspaper article described, it was a guy in a group he hung out with on New Year’s Day. Didn’t take me long to realize that he was talking about me.

This was 22 years ago. I know for a fact it was a mental illness, but just knowing that I had somehow “commanded” him to go kill his aunt stays with me to this day.” — catgotcha

Always look under the bed

“My great aunt lived way out in the boonies by an old southern prison. This was before most people had tv, so she had been listening to the radio and found out that a violent rapist had escaped from the prison nearby. She walked into her bedroom and had one of those old saggy mattresses and felt something under the bed. She said “something didn’t feel right” and she slowly got off the bed and called the police. When they arrived they found the rapist under her bed holding a knife from her kitchen. He told them he had been waiting for her to go to sleep so he could rape her and then stab her to death.” — northangerabby

Someone was there

“We were living with my brother in law and his two teens when i was pregnant. He has an elevated house on quite a bit of former hunting land, several miles down a county road.

My husband works 7-6 and BIL works offshore for 14 days. While he was at work, his kids stayed with their grandmother. Nice house but it had a weird vibe. I chalked it up to pregnancy hormones.

One day, home alone i was taking a shower and felt someone staring at me. I stuck my head out and listened. Couldnt hear anyone in the house so i resumed my shower. A while later i heard the back door shut. I was standing in the kitchen and could see the door (which had no steps and was 6′ from the ground). Door was still locked.

I told my husband about it that night and he shrugged it off. We locked down and went to bed. I dont know how long id been asleep but i woke up to the blankets being yanked off the bed and my husband flipping on every light in the house. He threw open every door, every cabinet, looked in every pantry or closet while holding his handgun. I asked what was going on and he swore he heard boots thumping through the house and someone talking. Everything was still locked and its not a big house. Nobody was there except us.

One night, a while later, my niece came into our room (her dad worked over and we had them for a few days) and asked to sleep in bed with us. Now, this girl isnt scared of anything and is 14 at the time. I sat up, told my husband to scoot over, and patted my pillow. Thats when i noticed her 16 year old brother curled up under a blanket on the floor beside me. “Why are you both in our room at 2 in the morning?”

They didnt want to answer at first but explained that something in my nieces room laughs at night. I hated that room when we moved in, and put up any laundry i did quickly in there. I asked my nephew why he was on the floor and he said, “She came into my room on the cot to sleep but something started knocking on the door. We came down here as soon as it stopped.”

Again, husband flipped on every light, looked in every nook and cranny. Nothing.

Eventually we moved out, and the kids decided to live full time with grandma. My husband said he heard a man laughing in my nieces room, but there was nobody there when he turned on the lights. Scared the shit out of him.” — KNSF

I was almost a hostage

“I was walking down the street when I saw a rusty nail in the road. I picked it up and threw it into an empty house’s yard (not helpful I know). After I threw the nail a man came out of what I thought was an empty house and shouted to me. I freaked out (thinking it was about the nail) and kept walking towards my house. The guy didn’t sound mad but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. He started following me to the street and gesturing me to come over but my gut told me to keep on walking. I get home and see from my house the empty house is now surrounded by cops (At this point I still think it’s about the nail). After awhile it gets worse and men in full gear show up.

I found out later that the house was indeed empty, the men inside were known criminals, and I very much almost ended up a hostage.” — duckyblinders

We found a leg

“While cutting lawns along this bike trail, me and a coworker found a mostly decayed, severed from the knee down, leg.

Cops were called, they questioned us and we never found out any more about what happened.” — phome83

“Years ago (early 90’s), my boyfriend was driving me home and we saw a man lying on the ground in the strangest position. Kneeling, with his head on the ground and bent at a sharp angle so that he faced the street. It was two in the morning and the man was covered in sweat with his eyes open. We pulled over and I hopped out of the car to check on this guy. His eyes were wide open and he seemed like… his face wasn’t moving, but it really felt like he was pleading for help. He didn’t respond at all when called out to him. No blinking, glassy eyes. I reached out to touch him and he was ice cold. I’m sure he wasn’t breathing.

This was before cell phones, so I hopped back in the car and we sped back to my house to call 9-1-1. Ten minutes later, the police called back to ask for the cross streets again. Apparently, they arrived at the corner and there was nothing there. I verified that they had the right spot and they said they would call back if they needed any more information. That was the last I ever heard about it. I checked the newspaper for the next few weeks, but we never found out anything else about that man.” — thelivingroad

“He’s biting daddy”

“My 3 year old, who is normally very happy go lucky, was extremely concerned the other day. He kept looking around the room talking about “the rhino” (who knows what a 3 year old might translate as a “rhino”). This went on for about 20 minutes – he was very concerned and looking around the entire time. So, we get to a point where he says the rhino is moving. My wife asks where the rhino is… “he’s coming to Daddy.” yeah, um, I’m Daddy and my ass puckered just a wee bit at that comment….

Fast forward about 4 days (last night), and he starts talking about “the ghost” – my daughter asks my son “where is the ghost”, my son says “he’s biting Daddy.”

What the actual fuck.” — Kahne_Fan

“We had quite a large house, shaped like an L. But the L was cut into a hill, so the _ of the L had a downstairs, which was almost underground. It had windows facing out but alot was either in the hill, or under another floor.

I had the room on the bottom part of the L from 13 onwards. My room had two doors, one that opened out to a kind of rumpus room, and one to an ensuite. It was always creepy as fuck, but being a skeptic, I dared anything there to do something to me. Grew up fine, but I could never sleep unless both doors were shut. When my parents went away, I’d break the rules and bring my dog in to sleep on the bed. I woke a few times late to see her alert and staring at the door to the rumpus room. Occasionally id hear a clawing at the screen on the window, but we had dogs, cats, horses and the local bush turkeys, foxes, etc. I figured if something was there that shouldnt have been my dogs would’ve gone ballistic.

Fast forward 5 years bring a new girlfriend to my home to meet my parents. Slept in my old room – she woke up screaming between 12am-3am twice out of the three nights we stayed there. Have been with her 5 years since and it’s only happened in that room. She won’t sleep in the house anymore.

My parents let my younger sister move into the room about 4 years ago. She asked me recently if i ever heard scratching on the window late at night. Both of the dogs we had, plus the cat and the horses are all dead, it being roughly 10 years later so the scratching is likely independent of the pets, unless the local animals are fucking with us. She also said she cant sleep unless both doors are shut and she’ll often put doorstops under both doors so she hears if either door opens.

She googled some stuff and decided to sage the room and said she’s had hectic nightmares since and woke up screaming late at night a few times. For reference, she was about 14 when the night terrors happened with my gf so we never told her. As i said, im a skeptic but it’s still pretty creepy.” — Torrossaur

“I was ambling down an old country highway in NW Georgia on my motorcycle (750 Vulcan) when I spotted an ambulance coming the opposite way. I pulled over, and a pickup truck pulled over behind me. In my rear-view mirror I see the passenger get out with a baseball bat and start hustling my way. I didn’t even look, just dropped it into gear and hauled ass. What followed was the most harrowing experience I’ve had in life as this pickup truck proceeds to chase me all over the place for about 20 minutes. I’m unfamiliar with the area and my bike was not meant for going fast around turns, so I’ve got no room for error and it’s all I can do to stay out in front of these guys. I’m blowing through four-way intersections in a bid to get some distance and come up with a plan, but they are hell-bent on catching me. I finally manage to get pointed towards the highway and into the cover of other cars, but then traffic stops on a bridge. The truck is three cars behind me, and I’m thinking if I can just get out to the highway I’m probably home free because my Vulcan can go fairly fast in a straight line. In my mirrors I can see that passenger snaking through the cars on the bridge, so I lane split (illegal in GA) and make the on-ramp, hammer down and I’m gone baby gone.

Never went back to that town. As far as I know this was an unprovoked attack of the hillbilly variety, because prior to the ambulance I hadn’t even seen another vehicle, I don’t ride particularly fast, and I don’t believe in loud pipes. I got lucky as hell, seeing him come up behind me like that.” — luckygiraffe

“I am fairly small for a guy. I stand at around 5’5” and the most I’ve ever weighed was around 150lbs. About 6 or 7 years ago I didn’t have my license despite being far old enough to drive, but a good buddy of mine wanted to hang out. He too did not have a way of transport, so we decided to both walk towards one another and meet in the middle. We would both be walking ~5 miles. It was 3am on a cold winter night and I was wearing a black jacket with my hood up.

About 2 miles into my hike along the main road, a car pulled into a parking spot of a home I was passing, just a few feet behind me. He wasn’t entirely into the driveway, almost half way hanging out into the road. I half expected it was just a kind stranger wanting to give me a ride, but I wasn’t about to take any rides from anybody. I kept pacing forward and ignored the car behind me, expecting them to roll down a window and shout at me. It didn’t happen. The car just sat at the edge of that drive way, running but completely dark inside to the point that I could only barely make out the figure of a large man.

I don’t typically get frightened by much, but something in the air made me tense up and my heart kind of dropped to my stomach. I stopped and turned to look at the car. I had a feeling that the person driving was watching me intently.

The figure in the car was definitely facing me; I could see the reflection from his dash bouncing off of his eyes. I stared back. I figured he was about to yell out to me, but he just sat quietly in a strangely menacing way that I have only ever seen scenes in movies play out. I kinda did a wave at the figure, letting him know I saw him and waited for some type of communication in return. He didn’t budge, just stared intently. I returned to pacing away, slightly brisker.

After just a few moments I could hear the car slowly roll in reverse, so I turned to face it but kept pacing backwards. The car kept creeping, slowly. I pulled down my hood and stood still again, waiting for him to pass me.. but instead the man slowed to a stop beside me. The passenger side window rolled down, and the man and I met eyes.

No words were exchanged at all, and before I could even let out a “hello?” the man grimaced and accelerated away at a decent pace; almost as if he was disappointed by what he had seen.

It doesn’t seem like much from how it reads, but I’ll never forget how tense that interaction was for me. I’ve not felt anything like it since.” — babyfacedjanitor

Haunted supermarket

“I work in a supermarket, early shift, and part of my job is changing the shelf labels for the price changes each day. Just this Wednesday gone I was putting new labels on a shelf of hand soap when, about two foot along the shelf from me, a bottle shot off and landed in the middle of the aisle. I looked along the aisle at my colleague and she just shrugs her shoulders and says “happens all the time!”

I’ve never directly witnessed anything else but, being one of the first on the shopfloor each day, I’m now questioning all the items that I see sitting in the aisles first thing and guessing I can’t blame untidy customers for them all.” — NiteliteBunnyFrite

“My sophomore year in college I ran into this guy that was a year younger than me. Let’s call him Mitch. Mitch and I we’re acquaintances that ran in the same circles. He was a nice guy. Smart. And quiet. At parties he would fold these really cool 3d shapes in the corner instead of interacting. He would always just…watch everybody.

Anyway, I ran into him at a bus stop and I stopped to say hello. We had an awkward chat about our majors (him physics, me chE) and I asked if he had any contact with a mutual friend that went into the army. He said yes and I said ‘Great! Could you pass him my number!’

He opened his wallet and pulled out a piece of paper, the only thing in there. It had my name, university address, and phone number.” — clavalle

Murder basement

“I work as a cable tech. I once went into a basement that I still have nightmares about. There was a single pull sting type light in the center of the room so I couldn’t really see much until I turned it on, but the walls down the stairway were covered in old newspaper. I am used to dark basements so going to turn on the light I was not prepared for what I saw. All the walls were covered in newspapers. Everyone of them was a headline about a tragedy or a murder. There was a black and white framed picture on the wall, and below it was a large child sized porcelain doll propped up in a rocking chair with a super old looking cradle beside it. I stayed and did my job but I still can’t shake that feeling of… something… when I think about it.” — invalid_turkey

“Every few months, in a department with over 20 women, we’d all come in in nearly identical outfits. It was odd. We were all ages and races and styles, but there’d be a day when everyone would show up in a black skirt and red blouse. A few months later, everyone in brown slacks and a cream colored dress shirt. A few months later, gray skirt and black sweater. We could never figure out the trigger (tv show character looking fly in that outfit the night before, a visitor to the building who appeared polished…nothing). Always creeped me out, as it seemed to represent some sort of group think or collective consciousness working on us.” — streamstroller

Please don’t do this at home

“This is a story from my mother. She was home alone for a while and was expecting a friend over, and was taking a shower. In case her friend came while she was still showering she left a note on the front door that said “I’m in the shower, come on in!” While she was showering she heard a knock on the bathroom door, and she said “I’ll be right out!” When she got out of the shower nobody was there, and a few minutes later her friend pulled into the driveway. ” — SolaireLuvzEstusSoup

“I converted an old Android phone into a IP security cam that starts recording and send me an email on motion. Set it up before going out of town. One night I got a “motion detected” email at 3am. In the morning I went through the video, recording somehow got jammed and it shows a single frame of a weird silhouette standing in front of the door, with the door open (I left it close, and it was closed when I got back home).” — oguz279

A love story

“When my grandmother’s second husband was in his death throes, he had a habit of knocking on the bedroom wall to get her attention, since he didn’t have the strength to shout. This went on for a long time, because even though he was deathly ill he kept holding on. I was about seven years old at the time, and living with them.

Not long after he died, my grandmother told me that she was sitting at the dining room table alone one morning as they used to together, quietly drinking her coffee, when suddenly she heard the knocking on the wall again. She heard it clear as day. It wasn’t me, because I was in their bedroom sleeping in her bed, and she could see me sleeping at that (it was a small house). She claims she heard it on more than one occasion.

As the years went by, other strange things happened. I began to have dreams of a young man in a navy uniform I’d never met before, watching us sleep in the house, or standing over me in my bedroom. I sometimes felt an eerie presence in the house, and at one point heard a disembodied voice call me by name in the middle of the day. My grandmother almost got into a car accident once, and nearly missed hitting a semi when all at once she swore to God she could smell his cologne like he was in the car. She also had odd dreams of her husband coming back to the house, telling her he hadn’t gone anywhere and he wasn’t dead.

Finally, a bird began to visit the house some days. I saw it and heard it myself. The bird would fly to her bedroom window, and tap on the window with its beak. It did this many times, and we learned to recognize it. That was the last sign before the odd occurrences began to taper off. My grandmother died a couple of years ago, and afterwards for the first time ever, I felt like the presence in the house had left us.” — CaptainCruiser

Who was there?

“I have dogs that bark at anybody. My mother doesn’t live with me nor has a key to my house.

About 4 years ago i am sitting in my house alone on a day off from work. Both of my dogs hovering around me. One at my feet. One at the doorway leading into the hallway.

Its quiet. I am redditing. Or doing whatever on the internet. I hear my mothers voice clearly say “Brian!” like she was trying to get my attention from across the house.

I just perked my head up a little stunned thinking I was hearing things. However my dogs, as soon as I perked up, so did they and they started growling really fierce in the direction of the voice with their hair raised.

We went to inspect the house but nothing was there.” — whySOcomical

“This happened quite a few years ago when I was at Uni. My friends and I were living on a ground floor flat and my room was at the front of the biulding, outside my window was the front garden.

My boyfriend (at the time) and I had literally just finished having sex and I put my head on the pillow and glanced to my right, which is where the window was. There was a gap between the curtain and the window and I was met with a pair eyes watching me. We both (me and the peeper) had the instinct to look away and then quickly look back. At this point, I shouted to my ex, that there was someone watching us from outside. He jumped, opened the window and shouted various amusing warnings. He could see that the grass was disturbed so that someone had been there and by the looks of it more than once.

From further inspection the next morning, we found out that he had jumped the small hedge and exited through my neighbours garden.” — treatmelikeatable

Hospital ghost

“I’m a nurse and I used to work day shift at my old job. I was walking down the hallway with my computer-on-wheels (COW) to pass meds one afternoon. I was in between two patient rooms, not really close to either door, and far away from the nurse’s station and kitchenette. I could hear one of the physical therapists talking to a patient in one of the rooms, but no one else was in the hallway. I was looking down at my papers to kind of get myself organized before going to see another patient. All of a sudden in my right ear, like someone was standing right behind me, I heard a female voice say “I’m COLD!!!” in kind of a jokey way, like someone would do a big shiver and rub their arms and say, brrrr, I’m COLD! I turned around thinking it was my friend Brittney goofing on me but there was no one there. There was no one in the hallway at all.” — MuninnMoraine

They want you to know they’re there

“My wife and our two friends are hanging out one evening chatting away, my son and his friend were( the son of one of the people we were hanging out with) were asleep in his room. The four of us hear a blood curdling yell. I swear it was her sons and she swears it was my sons voice. She races through the kitchen and into the room to see what has happened, nothing, they were sound asleep. She comes back through the kitchen to tell us and freezes in terror. Every single door and drawer is open, 23 of them. In the 10 seconds she was out of the kitchen everything was opened. 6 of them are high enough to be out of reach to everyone except me. Didn’t sleep too well that night.” — Icamp2cook

Toilet ghost

“As a child I walked into the toilet in my Great grandfather’s house (I lived with him for a while) and he was sitting on the toilet and had not locked the door.

I spluttered out an apology as I backed out and shut the door, then I stood on the other side of the door and realised that he had died some time before, shook my head and went back in to the empty toilet.

I have never really forgotten the feeling of ‘Well, that simply is not real’.” — Pedantichrist

“We have a Wii. The sensor bar is on the TV stand directly in front of the TV… as is anyones…

We dont have the cord wrapped up or anything it just hangs behind the TV in a jumble. One night we were watching TV cuddling on the couch, when suddenly, the Wii sensor bar literally flies across the room til it got to the end of its length and fell to the floor.

Like someone had grabbed it and chucked it across the room.

We could find no explanation for this whatsoever. We had a cat and a dog at the time but cat was sleeping in another room, and dog was on the couch with us.” — InthegrOTTO87

Patio lunch

“Was out at lunch in midtown Atlanta with some coworkers. We sat out on the patio. There are some high rise condos right across the street. Some guy jumped from his ~40th floor balcony and splattered all over the roof of someone’s Jetta. Everything went everywhere. The noise was pretty memorable as well. We noped out of there before ordering. It was a super silent ride back to work. One of my coworkers said he won’t sit out on patios anymore when eating.” — incognitoATwork

Creepy student

“I am a teacher of adult students, and one student of mine is kind of intense and creepy. Actually, she’s based at another school, but specifically started attending classes at my school after meeting me. When i first started, she kept giving me ‘welcome presents’ as I was new to the country. Just simple things like food, postcards and books, which was a nice idea but it seemed a little excessive. She added me on social media and then got upset when i didn’t reply to her constant messages (i told her that i don’t really use social media).

Anyway, i didn’t see her for a few months and figured she’d just gone back to her own school or stopped studying or whatever, and was relieved that she’d clearly got bored of me. But then last week she comes in and gives me an envelope full of photos of me during lessons that she’d taken… without me knowing.” — antisarcastics

“Was working in an office pretty late, 100% sure I was the only one there. The AC system shuts down at like 7PM, and until it does, you don’t notice how much noise it was actually making. Office got extremely quiet, which is unsettling to begin with, and I had my office door closed. About thirty minutes later, I hear the muted voice of a little girl with a heavy British accent saying “mommy, I think he’s in this one.” (note: I live in the American south, so there is no good reason for a British child to be there) Almost shit my pants as the door cracked ever so slightly, until a real live little girl popped her head in and says “nope, wrong one. Sorry!” Turns out, her American stepfather was still in the building.” — MotleyBru

Haunted clocks

“At our old house the clock on my nightstand always jumped ahead by five minute increments every few days. I’d change it out – electric, battery powered, any clock that was on my night stand would do it. Watched our room to make sure no one was messing with me. It was just… weird.” — focusly

He wasn’t asleep

“I often visit WalMart in the wee hours of the morning. One time I went in about 2 am and noticed and elderly gentlemen asleep on one of the mobility scooters at the entrance. When I left bout 20 minutes later, he was still there. I thought it was a little odd no one from the store had woken him up, but whatever. Found out the next day he had died and spent the better part of a day on display as a corpse at the entrance to walmart.” — bobombpom

“Years ago when I was a senior in high school, I had a day were I wasn’t feeling to great. So I decided, as I occasionally did, to skip out on my last two classes and head home. That meant no school buses obviously so I would just walk the 3 miles home. Before the age of computer cell phones this was a pretty long, boring hike to take so I decided to take a short cut through some small wooded trail along the creek.

Eventually I came across a dead cat lying in the middle of the trail. As I walked around it I noticed another dead cat to my left. Looked to my right and sure enough there was another. Creeped out, I looked behind me and noticed two more, and yet another two in front of me. they were all laid out in a giant circle, with one in the middle. Almost like a half assed pentagam.

I speeded up the pace and got the hell out of there. Never took that trail again. Thinking back a really weird thing is that there was no visible damage to any of the cats, to blood or cuts, the dead.” — PMmebassguitars

“I worked for Radioshack back in the late 90’s and I was scheduled to open on a Saturday morning. I go in the door, lock up behind me and go to the back to get things ready, only to see my boss sitting at the chair in the back with his tie around his neck and tied up to a inventory rack with his pants around his ankles and he’s dead with his still erect dong in his hands.

That is the day I started drinking heavily.” — meandrunkR2D2

“When I was 12 my cat went missing in the summer. We lived in the country near a lot of farms and he was an indoor/outdoor cat but he would come home every night for his dinner. He hadn’t shown up for 2 days and I’d been roaming around the fields looking for him. The 2nd night I had a vivid dream where I saw him lying on his side in a field, dead, with his neck snapped and his tongue hanging out. The next morning I went out as soon as I woke up and walked exactly to where his body was in a field about 600 yards from my house where I hadn’t looked yet. He looked just as he did in my dream, down to the position of his body and his tongue being out. We figure he got his neck snapped by a coyote or dog. Creeped me right out and I strongly believe that dreams can tell you things if you only pay attention. Since then I’ve had other dreams that have come true or warned me of things, but this was the most vivid – it was like a photograph – and 20 years later I can still see the image clearly in my mind. RIP sweet Max.” — lumaday

Indian in the cupboard

“I once worked as a live-in staff member in a college dormitory.

During the summer we housed the few summer school students who remained on campus (nearly 30). It may be significant to point out these students tended towards the highly academically-motivated, often times high-stress students, if quiet.

One warm day in late June my office received a call from a concerned sibling that she and her family was unable to reach her brother who lived by himself in a room on the summer school floor. This wasn’t unusual as our office frequently dealt with students avoiding their kith and kin due to frayed nerves or general social awkwardness.

Our normal protocol to check on a student is to try to reach them by our emergency contact information, failing that – go check their room to verify they’re living in the building and perhaps available then and there, then have them call their family to verify we followed up on the original request. Also – we are to only enter a room with another staff member present to ensure personal safety of staff and students. I failed to reach this student on his room and mobile phone, and was working short-staffed so since I was on my own I decided to pop up to his room and check on him. I arrived on his floor around 2 in the afternoon and the floor seemed deserted as I had expected. I found his room number and immediately noticed the sound of a movie playing on a TV or computer from behind the door. I knocked three times and announced that I was a staff member checking on his health and safety.

I didn’t think this was that remarkable, college students are notorious for leaving electronics running while not in the room. I checked the floor showers and bathrooms and found them deserted.

I returned to his door and knocked three more times, waiting about 20 seconds between each knock.

This is when my instincts started to buzz. I worked in residence halls a number of years as a professional and something about all the pieces of this puzzle weren’t adding up; family concerned about his health and safety, electronics running (someone must have started them recently, within the time frame of a movie run-time), summer school students and their idiosyncratic behavior, something wasn’t right.

I was by myself, so I probably let myself get more worked up than if I was with someone else. A deserted dorm floor, even at 2 in the afternoon, oftentimes evokes Kubrician memories of the Overlook Hotel . . .

I decided that for some sense of closure or sanity I needed the immediate resolution of keying into this student’s room, even though I was by myself and not technically supposed to do so.

I knocked on the door one more time for good measure, again announced myself as the hall director. I keyed into the room and my spider sense went off even stronger: The room appeared relatively vacant; the student appeared to be living out of a suitcase (which is unusual for someone staying no less than 8 weeks for a summer school session). The bedding was tussled like someone had been sleeping in it and all the lights in the room were on. And as I had suspected, there was an open laptop on a desk running on battery power playing The Matrix. But no student. I began to start rationalizing to keep from feeling unsettled; surely this student and I had crossed paths on my way to his room (I’d never met him before so I wouldn’t recognize him otherwise) and perhaps he was just down in the lobby picking up delivery food for a late lunch. Sure, that’s it.

Then I turned to leave, planning on trying to reach the student later in the afternoon or that night. As I turned to leave I noticed another odd piece of evidence; the accordion closet doors (which are removed in most rooms due to disuse, particularly single rooms like his) were still in this room. And they were closed.

Odd. I couldn’t remember the last time I actually saw someone use those cranky, dysfunctional doors. Then my intuition spiked higher than ever. SHIT SHIT SHIT. I realized I was alone in a room with a potentially suicidal student who may, in fact, have completed just that. And I am about to be “that guy” who discovers the body and then has a shit storm of paperwork and undesirable tasks, not the least of which would be calling the family back to break the news.

I felt like I was talking to myself when my voice cracked as I spoke to the closed doors and announced my name and title and that I would be opening those accordion doors in 3 seconds.

I fumbled with the latch on the doors, and finally managed to get them disengaged, and as I slid the doors apart, I was unprepared. I don’t know what I really expected, a hanging? gunshot wound?

I’ll tell you what I didn’t expect: a 7′ dark-skinned Indian man staring at me embarrassingly as though I had found his secret hangout. We stared at each other for a good 15 seconds without blinking, breathing or speaking. I finally realized what was going on and my natural emotion was disbelief. All I could think to say was, “Um . . . are you in here hiding from me?”

He looked at me and said, “Yah.”

My heart was still racing, I turned to leave and before I shut his door I turned back to him and said, “Call your sister, she’s worried about you, and, frankly, I am too.”” — PressureChief

Then who was security?

“Security at my old building came by to change the locks.

Then a few hours later, security came by to change the locks.” — hck1206a9102

“I’m entering a disclaimer- it was NOT a mountain lion.

I live in the sticks in Michigan, but a decent sized neighborhood with about twenty houses. Our streets make two circles. I was home with my toddler, who was taking a nap. I’m on my back porch, drinking coffee. Around noon. There’s a piercing scream that seems to last at least thirty seconds, I’m startled, so I go out of my fence and walk up my driveway to look around.

There’s a man hauling ass down the street, cradling his arm and dripping blood on the concrete. He sees me and shouts, “Did you see that fucking cat?! Which way did it go?!” I saw no animal.

I asked if he needed help, but he declined, saying an ambulance was on its way and just needed to find the cat. Perplexed, I pull off my long sleeve and hand it to the guy, telling him to at least wrap his injury. He holds up his arm, and his fingers are mangled.

“A housecat did this to you?!” As I gently help him wrap his hand.

“This wasn’t a regular cat…we just have to find him!!!!”

So I help him look. So do a few of our neighbors. Ambulance arrives a few houses down at his place, so we walk down and sit on the curb. Suddenly, commotion from the other way and a half dozen people sprinting to the cul-de-sac to corner this animal. It disappears around a house, and we hear a volley of barking. Another man comes from behind the house, running at full speed towards the ambo. I’m still sitting with bloody guy, and running guy gives him a tissue. I almost fainted and probably would have if I were standing- in it was bloody guy’s thumb and first finger, with a bit of tissue and nasty.

We never caught “the cat” and I didn’t get a good enough look at whatever it was to figure it out. Bloody guy said he was weeding his garden and this giant black fuzzy thing with teeth and a tail chomped his hand under the bush and ran. He tried to follow it, but it was too fast. He said it stood taller than his knees, and he was like 6’5.

Got his digits stuck back on properly though, and has since fenced his back yard.” — berthejew

“I was dating a girl in high school, let’s call her Stacy. During senior year we got senior release during lunch which meant we could leave school during our lunch period. Being horny teens we went back to her house and she started giving me a bj. Suddenly we both here someone call out “Stacy?”. We both jumped up and got dressed. No one was home. Both her parents were at work and her siblings was at school. We looked outside and no neighbors were outside. To this day we have no idea who or what it was, but we both heard it.” — Mr_Belch

Haunted tattoo shop

“Worked in a tattoo shop where two of the past owners had died. One of them died just a block away from the shop, and it was long rumored that the shop was haunted/cursed. Weird stuff would happen like speakers/decorative knives falling off shelves overnight and smashing through our glass-topped light table, and the lights would flicker on and off.

One late night I was alone in the shop tattooing some eighteen-year-old kid and the light above me started flickering. My lights above my station had always been perfectly lit so this seemed unusual. It was flickering so much that it was starting to get annoying and I began to feel nervous, even though I really didn’t believe the shop was haunted. Finally after a few minutes of this I stopped tattooing for a second, looked up at the light, and said in my head, “okay [dead shop owner’s name], I get it, you’re here. Can you stop messing with my light, please?” It was supposed to be kind of a joke.

The light stopped flickering INSTANTLY. It went back to just shining regular ol’ light and I went back to tattooing, pretty shaken up. From that moment I knew the dead shop owner was there and I knew he was just causing occasional mayhem to fuck with us, nothing malicious but definitely haunting that place.” — mmiikkiitt

People are scarier than ghosts

“I used to work at a Boy Scout Summer Camp. Every week I had to take a big group of campers to a “secluded” spot for their wilderness survival badge where they had to build a shelter out of sticks, leaves, etc and sleep in it overnight. The spot was only about 1/2 mile from the main camp, but we took them a circuitous route that made it seem really secluded.

Anyways, on this one night all the campers had made their shelters, we had cooked dinner, and were all just sitting around the campfire. It was getting late, maybe 11:00, so I sent all the campers to their shelters for the night and started cleaning up the fire. That’s when we heard in the distance what sounded like church bells. They were pretty faint, but myself and my fellow staffers could definitely hear them. They went on for about 30 minutes, ringing ever 30 seconds, or so. We were all a little creeped out, as there were no churches or towns within 20 miles of us. After the bells stopped, though, the singing started. It was too faint to hear the words, but it sounded like church choir music, but a lot of people, and a lot more enthusiastic. Also, it was almost midnight at this point. The singing went on for well over an hour, sometimes quieting down until we almost couldn’t hear it, sometimes getting so loud we thought it was getting closer.

All of the campers were super creeped out, but I lied to them, telling them there was a church service going on in camp, and that there was nothing to be scared of. Eventually, at almost 1 AM, the singing stopped. I found out a few days later that there had been a large KKK rally only a few miles away that night, and that’s what we had heard.” — VVillyD

Co-worker apparition

“This isn’t creepy, but it gave me pause for thought.

I was returning to my office having finished a meeting. As I approached the door, I saw my colleague walk from the left of the office to the right – presumably returning to his desk.

As I entered the office, I started to say “Hey Ma-“, stopping abruptly upon the realisation that there was nobody else in the office with me.

I’m not sure what exactly I witnessed, but it was clear enough and detailed enough to convince me 100% that my colleague would be in there.” — MostBestInternetter

At least it wasn’t the other way around

“A few months ago I had this really scary dream that seemed so real. In my dream, I was in my bed doing something on my laptop. Suddenly I just had a bad feeling something wasnt right. Like I somehow knew something was in my room with me that shouldnt be there. I jump off my bed, and hurry and flip my light on. I flip it on just in time to see this weird black shadow sphere thing with legs zoom under my bed. I woke up scared and crying, but it felt so real and I just knew whatever I saw was very evil.

The next day me and my dad were watching one of those ghost shows like My Ghost Story on TV. In the episode this women was in her room, and all of a sudden she felt like something wasnt right. She turned her light switch on just in time to see a weird black shadow sphere thing with legs scurry under her bed. It pretty much looked exactly like the thing I saw in my dream. I flipped the fuck out.” — Newaccountsauce

But then who was phone?

“Working late in the lab at school, I had to grab something from an upstairs classroom. It’s after midnight and the entire building was empty and dark. Suddenly the phone in the classroom starts ringing. So, after that heart attack I decide to answer it.

Silence. Not even a dial tone. So I hope out and go back to my dorm. The next day I have class in that room, so I ask my professor how often people call the classroom phone by mistake. He looks at me funny and says the phone in that room has been disconnected for years.” — Pinion_Gear

The murder chair

“Took my 3 year old daughter on a hiking trail through some local woods. I let my daughter lead the way and she chose to turn up a path that was far less well trafficked than most of the trails in the area.

About 10-15 minutes in on this relatively overgrown and barely there trail, heading deeper into a more isolated portion of the forest than I’d ever been to previously, we came across a grizzly sight. A white plastic lawn chair tied to a tree by a rope, the seat covered in splatters of days old dried viscous fluid.

https://i.imgur.com/plEfQ1y.jpg I snapped that pic and then picked my daughter up and noped the fuck right out of there. After the fact I’ve come to a far less creepy explanation for what we saw, but in the moment it was creepy as fuck.” — OctavianX

“I was working with a young client with childhood onset Schizophrenia. This individual was a harm to themselves and others.

My back was to the window in my office when they started screaming “THE MAN IN THE BLACK IS HERE HE FOLLOWED ME NO NOOO!” As I am trying to calm them down, they start to sob.

HE IS AT THE WINDOW. I CAN HEAR HIM. HE SAYS HE WANTS TO HURT YOU. HE WILL COME IN HERE AND TAKE YOUR SKIN OFF HE WANTS YOU DEAD.

I am trying to calm them down, moving through the plan we had when they were overcome by their hallucinations.

Then I hear tapping on the window.

There is an enormous black crow at the window. Tapping on the glass extremely hard with its beak. The bird was just staring at me. It would tap, bringing its head back and slamming its beak into the glass. Then staring. Over and over again.

I got the client calmed down and we ended. The bird was still there. We leave the office.

The bird was still there when I came back.

Next client comes in. Bird was still there.

That bird sat at my window another four hours, staring and tapping.” — LustfulGumby

Peeping Tom

“I don’t know if this counts because I was too young to actually remember this happening, but one day when I was in elementary school my mom picked my brother and I up from school and we stopped to play at a local park on the way home. We ended up leaving early because there was a sketchy truck parked there (not in the parking lot) and my mom was a little uneasy about it.

Later that night, my mom was getting ready for bed and screamed because there was a guy peering through her bedroom window. My dad ran outside but the guy was gone already. A month or so later, we were watching America’s most wanted and my mom recognized one of the guys as the guy who had been peering through her window. His truck was identical to the sketchy truck she had seen at the park. He had murdered his girlfriend’s parents (girlfriend and brother were stabbed but survived, IIRC).” — BareShoulderHeathen

Benign ghost

“Almost every night my TV turns on by itself at some point between 3-5 am. I used to think that maybe it was one of my cats who walked across the remote, but I’ve tried hiding the remote, putting it places where they couldn’t get to it, and it still happens.

Now I just turn the sound all the way down, before I go to bed. The TV will still get turned on, but at least then I won’t be woken up by it.

I’m sure there’s some reasonable explanation for it, but I rather like the idea of having a benign ghost, who likes late-night TV, living in my tiny apartment with me.” — Lilebi

“I had a customer come into my work wearing a trench coat and ushanka type hat. Looked to have something strapped to his shirt under the coat with duct tape. He left, I messaged my wife about how creepy he was and that I thought he had a bomb on his chest. He came back 15 minutes later and thanked me for being polite and started talking about religion and Obama being the Anti-Christ. Turns out he was on his way to shoot up the Planned Parenthood and he managed to kill 3 people.” — Yizzar1234

The universe turned off

“About three years ago, my old roommate and I were just hanging out in our living room watching a show or something in the middle of the day, when all of the sudden for like a split second everything went pitch black. Like, everything. It was not a power outage, our TV remained on and there were no blinking clocks. It was more as if the universe just turned off for a half-second.

As if this utterly unparalleled experience wasn’t enough on its own, my roommate looked over at me right after it happened and said “Did you see that?”” — lmMrMeeseeksLookAtMe

Family story

“When I was about 10, something real weird happened to my family.

We were all asleep, as usual, and I slept in the same room as my brother, and my mum with my father and younger brother. In the middle of the night, the safe in my parents’ room starts going off as if someone was playing with it. My parents didn’t think much about it, went back to bed, and right as they did that, my brother’s toys (the ones that had those children’s songs) started playing music, without anyone touching it. They were a little freaked out, but it went away after a few minutes so they went back to bed. However, in the morning, when my mum brought my brother to the shower, she saw a red handprint on his back that was too big to be hers but too small to be my father’s. I saw the handprint, and it looked as though someone had slapped my brother, but nobody did and he slept quite well.

My mum called her family, and told my grandparents about it. After a few phone calls, we found out that my paternal grandma died that night, while we were asleep. So our family came up with the explanation that my grandma wanted to see my newborn brother so she payed us a little visit (my family is a bit superstitious, but apparently it’s normal for South Europeans). I still am unable to explain that and it still is a little scary to think about.” — Aleksandra1128

“When I was young we use to live in a house that we didn’t know was haunted at the time. There were many thing I remember happening, but the one that freaked me out was when my sister’s said that whenever they tried to look for me, they always found me in my mom and dads closet with the door closed. I would be sitting there in the dark and play with my toys, and when they asked why I was in there I would say I’m playing with my friends. Other things kept happening that my parents brought a medicine man to the house. He told us that an old man and his 2 granddaughters died in a fire in the house. So he did his ceremony to get rid of the spirits, he told us to leave the front door open for tonight and we all sleep in the living room. towards the middle of the night I remember we all woke up to the sound of the front door slamming shut, indicating that the spirits have left us.” — nativelight

The thin person

“My father’s story. One day he was cooking for the family. The living room and kitchen is one room where in the middle of it, there is a corridor that leads to our bedrooms. As he was cooking he turned around and saw this really tall and thin ”person” runs from our living room through the corridor. My father as a man of science does not believe in the paranormal, but this got him… He went to check in every single bedroom just to be sure about it. That is the part that terrifies me.” — DimitrisPla

Ghost sister

“I was waiting at my Nan’s house alone for a couple of hours and it was all fine and dandy. I was sat on an armchair near the door of the living room and I hear my sister clearly call my name in an annoyed way. She wasn’t in the house! My heart started beating like crazy and then when she did come in to the house about 40 minutes later she just laughed at me . I still don’t know what it was or if my mind was playing tricks on my but it was very creepy.” — k-f-p

“This happened to my old coworker:

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Essay on Horror Story

Students are often asked to write an essay on Horror Story in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Horror Story

Introduction.

Horror stories are a genre of fiction that seeks to scare, disturb, or startle its readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror.

Elements of Horror

Key elements include suspense, surprise, and a sense of impending doom. Often, horror stories involve supernatural elements or entities.

Impact on Readers

These stories can have a profound impact on readers, evoking intense emotions and creating memorable experiences.

Despite their frightening nature, horror stories remain popular due to their ability to engage readers’ emotions and imagination in unique ways.

250 Words Essay on Horror Story

The intrigue of horror stories, psychological appeal.

At the heart of every horror story is the exploration of fear. Sigmund Freud’s concept of ‘the uncanny’ explains our attraction to horror as a confrontation with repressed fears and desires. This exploration of the unknown and the forbidden can be cathartic, allowing us to experience fear in a controlled environment.

Cultural Significance

Horror stories also reflect societal fears and anxieties. For instance, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” mirrors the 19th-century fear of scientific advancement, while George Orwell’s “1984” embodies the dread of totalitarian regimes. Thus, horror stories serve as cultural artifacts, offering insights into the zeitgeist of an era.

Narrative Techniques

The narrative techniques employed in horror stories are designed to evoke fear and suspense. Techniques such as foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and unreliable narrators keep readers on edge, while the use of dark, descriptive language helps create a chilling atmosphere.

In conclusion, horror stories are more than mere tales of terror. They are a reflection of our deepest fears, a commentary on societal anxieties, and a testament to the power of narrative techniques in evoking emotional responses. Their enduring popularity is a testament to their complexity and the human fascination with the macabre.

500 Words Essay on Horror Story

Horror stories have been a part of human culture for centuries, delighting and terrifying audiences in equal measure. They are narratives designed to frighten, cause dread or panic, or invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale. The horror genre taps into the primal fear within us, making us confront the unknown and the terrifying.

The Psychology behind Horror

The evolution of horror stories.

Horror stories have evolved significantly over the years, keeping pace with societal changes and shifts in what we fear. Early horror stories were often tied to religion, reflecting fears of the supernatural and the afterlife. As society became more secular, the focus shifted to the horrors of the human mind and the terrors of the unknown.

Modern horror stories, such as Stephen King’s works, often blend elements of the supernatural with the psychological, creating a sense of unease that lingers long after the story is over. The horror genre has also expanded into various sub-genres, such as psychological horror, supernatural horror, and body horror, each catering to different fears and anxieties.

The Impact of Horror Stories on Society

In conclusion, horror stories are an integral part of our cultural fabric, serving as both entertainment and a means to explore our deepest fears and anxieties. They have evolved with society, reflecting our changing fears and serving as a commentary on societal issues. Despite their often gruesome and terrifying content, horror stories provide a safe space to explore the darker aspects of our psyche, helping us to understand and confront our fears. The enduring popularity of the horror genre is a testament to its ability to tap into our primal fears and its capacity to thrill, terrify, and captivate audiences.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Happy studying!

Topics in English Topics in english to learn and fluent pronunciation and writing and facilitate conversation between you and others, whether in school, work or daily life

Short horror story essay 8 Models

Short horror story essay is one of the popular intimidation methods that help parents in correcting children and improving their behavior in many educational aspects.

Through this article, we will provide you with many models that talk about stories of horror and intimidation that may help or influence the behavior of children, show the goals of horror stories, and the extent of the impact of these stories on improving children’s instincts, and strengthening their personality.

Short horror story essay

The school plays an important and significant role in educating children and improving their behaviour. In a similar article that talks about horror stories, the student can learn about the dimensions of these stories, the extent of their impact and why they are used.

The student can talk about his fears and terrifying situations he went through. The teacher can take advantage of these events and try to address these fears by guiding him and talking to him, or by making him research more about the dimensions of the problem and the benefits that he benefited from despite going through a terrifying situation.

At the beginning of the article we will put several points that show the goals that must be present within the topic, and several models will be created using these points inside them, so that the articles are useful for the student in case he wants to present them to the school, or if he wants to know the aspects that he should talk about inside a similar article he talks about the horror stories and the bad situations he was exposed to.

Objectives of the article

1- To obey orders.

2- Giving up bad behavior.

3- Repressing the evil instincts that are inside every human being.

4- Controlling the child in the safety zone next to the parents.

5- Planting correct means and methods through intimidation.

Several years ago, my father told me a story about a boy who went out without telling his family where he was going. And this was late at night. After he left, he met some children and played a little with them and enjoyed this, but because of the late time these children left him, some of them returned to their home alone, and some of them their families came to to pick them up, and he found himself alone in the end.

He decided to walk around for a while, so that he might encounter other children and continue playing with them. But after walking for a long time, he found that all the streets were empty, and it was dark everywhere, and he could no longer discern where he was, and that he was far from home and lost his way.

And whenever he tried to return from where he came, he found himself in dangerous areas with street dogs, and in order to avoid them, he kept entering other streets, until he lost the way completely. So he sat crying and did not find anyone to bring him home because all the people of the town were asleep.

The time at night was getting hard for this naughty little boy. Every minute that passes feels like it’s a long time and he’s so afraid of darkness and loneliness. And whenever he heard the sound of dogs howling, intensified in crying. And whenever he called his father, he did not come to take him, because he was far from the house and did not tell them that he was going out, and did not tell them where he was going.

Then he learned that he had made a big mistake and that his father would not come to look for him because he thought he was asleep. And he decided to try to call for help and search for any place where there are people and tell them what happened.

And he kept walking in the dark crying for a long time until he found some people, and told them his name, where he lived, and the name of the neighborhood in which he lived. Fortunately for him, they weren’t bad guys, and they brought this guy home.

The father was very angry with him for this behavior and punished him for a week for this behavior. But the boy was happy that he came home and learned the lesson well and knew that this wrong behavior was dangerous and could have lost his family for life.

While hearing this story, I was very afraid and put myself in the place of this boy, and I found myself learning from him what to do. And that I must tell my family where I am going, and watch the time, and take care of myself and not stay away from home. When I finish playing, I go home.

In the early morning, I was very careful to memorize my full name, the name of the neighborhood in which I live, the name of my mother, and the house number.

Although the story was scary for me, I learned a lot from it and had a reaction to every event that takes place in it.

Dear student, a basic form was submitted for the topic on short horror story essay, In addition to many other models such as, horror short story essay, creepy short horror story essay, a short horror story essay, short ghost story essay, short ghost story essay, scary short story essay, scary experience essay.

If you prefer to add any other topic, you can contact us through the comments of this article and we will study your request and add it as soon as possible.

horror short story essay

At the weekend I went on a trip with my friends to the forest. We took camping equipment, some food and water. The weather was nice, the trees were leafy, the birds were flying from tree to tree, the landscape was beautiful.

We wandered in the woods and ate the fruits on the trees, and as we wandered, a huge bear appeared in front of us, looked at us and prepared to attack us.

We were all very terrified, but the instructions reminded us not to run, not to scream, and to act calmly. I took out of my bag a self-defense spray bottle, which should be used in this case. But the bear left quietly and none of us were hurt.

creepy short horror story essay

I get up early and sit in the garden of the house, enjoying the fresh air, listening to the sound of birds, watching beautiful flowers and other beautiful landscapes, but yesterday something terrifying happened to me.

When I sat on the bench in the garden and was enjoying nature I felt something moving under the chair.

I quickly looked under the chair and found a large black snake.

It moves slowly, I felt very terrified and could not move, I remained frozen in my place, the snake crawled slowly and I looked at it with horror, until it moved away several meters, I called the competent authority immediately and a trained man came and caught the snake.

a short horror story essay

Last week I went with my family to the zoo, the weather was nice, and we were enjoying the nature, where there are a lot of green leafy trees and decorated with beautiful flowers and large areas that allow us to run and play, everything was beautiful.

Then we went to the animal cages and watched the animals from a distance.

But there is a person who got very close to the lion’s cage, even though there is a sign on it that says Do not go near the animal cages.

He was not satisfied with that, but he extended his hand into the cage, and the lion grabbed his hand with force, and this person was unable to rid his hand of the lion’s fangs.

The man screamed loudly from the severity of the pain, and the guard came quickly and tried to give the lion a piece of meat to leave the man’s hand, but to no avail.

The veterinarian quickly intervened and gave the lion an anesthetic injection, and the man was able to get his hand out of the cage, but it had many wounds and was taken to the hospital. It was really terrifying moments.

Short ghost story essay

There are many people who feel terrified in the dark, and my brother is very afraid of the dark and feels terrified and imagines frightening things.

So when the electricity went out and the house became dark. I went to his room quietly without feeling, and stood in front of him, making some strange sounds.

My brother jumped quickly and came out of the room saying a ghost of a ghost, but he hit the wall and cut his head and bled a lot, it was a big wound.

At that time I was telling him don’t be afraid, I am your brother, but he was very frightened. I was very sorry for him and regretted that I had caused him to feel terrified and made him crash into the wall.

And I told him I was just trying to joke with you and I wouldn’t do it again but you should train yourself not to be afraid of the dark.

A Short Scary Story Essay

Last weekend I went with my friends on a fishing trip. We chartered a fishing boat with all our fishing gear and went into the sea for a long distance, so that we could see neither the beach nor the city.

We started fishing and we were very happy because there are many fish and they are also big, and the weather was nice.

Suddenly strong winds blew and the waves rose, and the fishing boat was swinging with us over the water, up and down, and we couldn’t control it.

At this time we felt so afraid that we would drown.The fishing boat cannot withstand these bad weather conditions.

But after a while the wind calmed down a bit and we miraculously survived.

Scary short story essay

Last weekend I went with my colleagues on a school trip to one of the archaeological sites, and we had some teachers with us organizing the trip and supervising our transfers.

We entered a museum that houses great antiquities and stood listening to the tour guide talking about the history of these antiquities.

I was fascinated and listened to the tour guide with great interest, so that I did not feel the departure of my colleagues and teachers, as they left the museum and got on the bus and left this place and did not feel my absence.

When I found myself alone in the museum, I felt very afraid and searched for them all over the museum, but I could not find them, so my fear increased and my crying became louder.

Suddenly I found one of the teachers entering the museum and looking for me, so I ran towards him and grabbed his hand and felt safe.

Scary Experience Essay

At the end of the year I had a frightening experience. I went to the beach and decided to snorkel, so I bought wetsuits, put them on, and dived into the sea. But it was not what I expected and almost drowned.

I was so scared when I found myself unable to dive, and could not swim to the top.

It was a difficult situation but one of the lifeguards on the beach saw me, knew I was going to drown and ran to save me.

Therefore, I advise others to learn before we do anything that might endanger our lives.

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Kelli Maroney On Narrating ‘Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street’

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I have always loved and revered Preston Fassel’s work, so I was thrilled and so very honored to narrate Landis . I still am.

I know how much writing this book and getting it out into the world meant to him, what a perverse, nonsensical struggle it was to get anyone to agree to speak with him about Landis, to get any information out of anybody, and how lucky Bill Landis himself was to have someone like Preston care so much about telling his story. The irony of having pretty much no one care about him in life or death and then having Preston create this beautiful tribute to him really touched me. I’m beyond proud to be invited to be part of things so I approached this book and this story with great reverence.

I may be an unexpected surprise narrator in one way, yet in another, the writing style and subject matter is smack-dab in my wheelhouse. I actually experienced the very tail-end of this period in time as a teenager in NYC myself, on “The Deuce,” as some called it—42nd St.—and although I only walked past it (or “around it” to avoid whatever that was on the sidewalk) it all came back to me as a real place and time where I had physically been. I can report that everything Preston so richly describes is 100% accurate. I could smell it, hear it, and I was back there myself as I read it.

The challenge for me in narrating was that I wanted to linger on everything, the attention to detail and description, and that isn’t my job as a narrator! I’m supposed to be somewhat neutral and read the book aloud and not comment or “share my thoughts” about it to the listener via my tone, etc. The challenge for me was to stay somewhat neutral and simply present the story. But, much to my surprise, it’s almost impossible not to be in there living the story oneself. When you experience the book, you’ll know what I mean. No one can put it down until they finish it.

From my first day of narration, I had a total blast meeting my very shy sound tech, waving from the booth, “Hi, I’m Kelli!” and promptly sailing into a description of porn stars not ejaculating and everyone on set waiting for a cum shot. I adored it. Poor guy was a born-again Christian, I found out later.

Then there are so many hilarious and absurd stories that narrating Landis with a straight face took a couple of takes. My sound tech and I cracked up laughing—a lot. He became personally involved in the story (!) though he had absolutely no reason to care about Landis or 42nd St, or gay people, or Fangoria—too young to conceptualize health care. We just sucked him in!

I listened to as many of the real people’s voices as I could, not to mimic them but to see if I could catch their cadences so the listener could somewhat follow who was speaking. Bill was the most fun because his voice was so legendarily annoying. (Truly, it was, but it was also fun to listen to). I learned a lot more about the people I was able to get recordings of just by hearing them chatting a little.

And I got choked up and cried several times and had to take a break, too. There are personal stories and pathos of groups of people and the callousness of the culture and the time in general that affected me, and may or may not affect you, so trigger warning, I suppose. I learned a lot about that time that I didn’t know because, back then, there were so many closed minds and closed mouths.

I appreciate Preston’s doggedly trudging back in time and rescuing their voices and stories for us now that we have better ears to listen to, whether they liked it or not. As much as they would let him, of course.

I can’t get over how weird that is and how weird it must have been for him! WTF. Maybe there were some murders or something being covered up, the paranoia! Or they could just be weird old people. Who knows?

Thank you to the incredible people at Encyclopocalypse.com for all their help and support. This is an outstanding company. And thank you for checking out (choosing, whatever) this audiobook. I hope you enjoy Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street as much as I do.

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M. Night Shyamalan's new thriller 'Trap' is inspired by the true story of a twisted sting operation

M. Night Shyamalan's thriller "Trap" is inspired by a real-life sting operation, Operation Flagship.
"Trap" stars Josh Hartnett and centers on a sting to catch a serial killer at a concert.
In 1985, fugitives were arrested after being fooled into thinking they won football tickets.

Director M. Night Shyamalan 's new thriller, "Trap," is filled with twists and turns , but its premise is grounded in a real-life sting operation that took place in the '80s.

"Trap," now playing in theaters, stars Josh Hartnett as Cooper, a middle-aged man who takes his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert for her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (played by Shyamalan's real-life daughter and musician Saleka Night Shyamalan).

The "twist" revealed in the trailers is that Hartnett's seemingly mundane dad is secretly a serial killer known as "The Butcher" and the concert is actually an elaborate trap designed by the feds to catch him.

As it turns out, the concept of "Trap" isn't too far-fetched or unfathomable. The US government used a similar tactic to catch 100 fugitives by luring them to a football game with free tickets. Here's how the sting operation partly inspired Shyamalan's film.

Operation Flagship was an unconventional trap that resulted in the arrests of 101 wanted fugitives on December 15, 1985

In 1985, the DC police and US Marshals lured in wanted fugitives by capitalizing on the popularity of the football team then known as the Washington Redskins (now the Washington Commanders).

The elaborate ruse, known as Operation Flagship , began with the creation of the fictional Flagship International Sports Television, which was a riff on the acronym FIST, the Fugitive Investigative Strike Team .

The fake corporation mailed invitations to the last known addresses of more than 3,000 wanted people, telling them they won free tickets to a Redskins vs. Cincinnati Bengals football game.

The 101 criminals who responded to the phony invitations attended a brunch at the Washington Convention Center on the morning of the game to pick up their complimentary tickets, celebrate their good fortune, and get free transportation to the game.

In actuality, the fugitives were surrounded by over 100 undercover cops posing as cheerleaders, mascots, maintenance crew members, and other venue staff.

The fugitives were then split into smaller, more manageable groups. When it came time for the big surprise, members of the Special Operations Group burst into the room and arrested the fugitives.

Shyamalan said that the sting operation was 'hilarious' and the absurdity of the fakeout stuck with him

Shyamalan told Empire magazine that Operation Flagship inadvertently led him to pitch a movie that raises the question, "What if 'The Silence of the Lambs' happened at a Taylor Swift concert?"

In the press notes for "Trap," Shyamalan said that the idea for "Trap" was born out of conversations with his daughter about merging music with filmmaking by creating a thriller that's also a music-driven movie.

"After I was thinking, 'Hey, this could be a killer that's in there,' this notion came to me of, I remember as a kid, this event that happened in the '80s where the police and the FBI created a sting operation at a public event," Shyamalan told Dexerto .

"It was hilarious," Shyamalan told Empire magazine of the real-life operation. "The cops were literally cheerleaders and mascots. These guys were dancing as they came in. And they were all caught. It was so twisted and funny."

"Trap" isn't a comedy by any means, but the dark humor of Operation Flagship informed the movie.

"The tone of that absurdity — that you were dancing with them and then your life was over on that day — stuck with me as really strange and wonderful. And so we kind of took that language," Shyamalan told Dexerto.

Watch: Going behind the scenes of 8 horror movies, from 'Nope' to 'X'

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Britain’s Violent Riots: What We Know

Officials had braced for more unrest on Wednesday, but the night’s anti-immigration protests were smaller, with counterprotesters dominating the streets instead.

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A handful of protesters, two in masks, face a group of riot police officers with shields. In the background are a crowd, a fire and smoke in the air.

By Lynsey Chutel

After days of violent rioting set off by disinformation around a deadly stabbing rampage, the authorities in Britain had been bracing for more unrest on Wednesday. But by nightfall, large-scale anti-immigration demonstrations had not materialized, and only a few arrests had been made nationwide.

Instead, streets in cities across the country were filled with thousands of antiracism protesters, including in Liverpool, where by late evening, the counterdemonstration had taken on an almost celebratory tone.

Over the weekend, the anti-immigration protests, organized by far-right groups, had devolved into violence in more than a dozen towns and cities. And with messages on social media calling for wider protests and counterprotests on Wednesday, the British authorities were on high alert.

With tensions running high, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet held emergency meetings to discuss what has become the first crisis of his recently elected government. Some 6,000 specialist public-order police officers were mobilized nationwide to respond to any disorder, and the authorities in several cities and towns stepped up patrols.

Wednesday was not trouble-free, however.

In Bristol, the police said there was one arrest after a brick was thrown at a police vehicle and a bottle was thrown. In the southern city of Portsmouth, police officers dispersed a small group of anti-immigration protesters who had blocked a roadway. And in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where there have been at least four nights of unrest, disorder continued, and the police service said it would bring in additional officers.

But overall, many expressed relief that the fears of wide-scale violence had not been realized.

Here’s what we know about the turmoil in Britain.

Where arrests have been reported

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Tim Walz's military record: What to know about potential VP's National Guard service

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive yet plain-spoken VP candidate from America’s heartland to help her win over rural, white voters.

“I’m pleased to share that I’ve made my decision: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join our campaign as my running mate,” Harris said via text to supporters. “Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families. I know that he will bring that same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president.”

We look at Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran, and his military career over the years.

More: Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' VP pick: Minnesota governor named running mate: Live updates

How long was Walz in the military?

Walz served in the military for 24 years, enlisting in the Nebraska National Guard at 17 in 1981 and then transferring to the Minnesota National Guard in 1996. He retired in 2005 to begin his successful run for the U.S. House, representing Minnesota as command sergeant major, among the highest ranks for enlisted soldiers. His battalion went on to deploy to Iraq shortly after Walz's retirement.

Walz specialized in heavy artillery and had proficiency ribbons in sharpshooting and hand grenades.

But during the 21 years that Walz spent working with large artillery pieces, he suffered hearing loss and tinnitus in both ears, Minnesota Public Radio reported. He was allowed to continue his service after undergoing surgery, which partially resolved his hearing loss.

Where did Walz serve, and what did he do in the National Guard?

During his service, Walz responded to natural disasters, including floods and tornadoes in Minnesota and Nebraska, and was deployed overseas for months at a time, according to MPR.

In 2003, he was sent to Italy, where he served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Norway for joint training with other NATO militaries.

Walz told MPR that he reenlisted in the National Guard after the September 11 attacks but never saw active combat in his years in the military.

Stars and Stripes reported in 2020 that Walz credited his Army experience with helping him steer Minnesota through the COVID-19 pandemic as governor.

As governor of Minnesota, Walz is commander in chief of the 13,000-soldier Minnesota National Guard. “I’m certainly proud of my military service, but it’s one piece of me,” he told Minnesota Public Radio in 2018. “It doesn’t define me.”

Reuters and USA TODAY reporter Tom Vanden Brook contributed to this story.

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132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas
Although many horror writing prompts and scary ideas have been written, the following 132 horror writing prompts can spark great creativity in aspiring writers of the horror genre. A family is on a camping trip. The parents are walking with their two children, a daughter and a son. The little boy trips and falls into a dark river.
101 Horror Writing Prompts (Scream-worthy prompts for horror stories)
4. On this Halloween night, your guinea pig won't stop running in circles, and your dog keeps staring at the door, emitting a low growl. 5. You run out for candy on Halloween afternoon to find the streets empty and the store abandoned. A single car cruises into the lot and pulls into the spot next to yours. 6.
25 Horror Writing Prompts: How to Write Scary Stories
Last updated: Sep 3, 2021 • 1 min read. Not all horror stories need to be set during Halloween. Looking for inspiration to start writing a scary story or creepy film? See these 25 creative writing prompts for writing your own horror story. Articles.
101+ Horror Writing Prompts for Spine-Tingling Stories
Horror Writing Prompts. 1. Two coworkers working an overnight shift at a museum begin to suspect that the exhibits are coming to life and have sinister intentions. 2. A teenage girl becomes increasingly disgusted with her body and turns to a dark ritual to change her appearance. 3.
110+ Horror Writing Prompts (With A Twist)
110+ Horror Writing Prompts (With A Twist) Give yourself the chills with this list of over 110 horror writing prompts. From scary ghost stories to creepy stories about animals and monsters. Now is the time to write your own horror story, just like Goosebumps or The Haunting of Aveline Jones. From the gory to the scary, from the monstrous to the ...
How to Write a Horror Story: 7 Tips for Writing Horror
6. Put your characters in compelling danger. 7. Use your imagination. 7 key tips to writing a blood-chilling horror story 😱. Click to tweet! 1. Start with a fear factor. The most important part of any horror story is naturally going to be its fear factor.
Top 101 Bone-Chilling Horror Writing Prompts
Horror writing prompts. 1) You are accused of beating a man but you have no memory of the incident. You start hearing voices in your head and realize that evil spirits have entered your body. 2) A psychologist suggests a new therapy to a patient after which the patient starts getting scary nightmares.
135 Horror Writing Prompts: How to Write Scary Stories In 2024
Writing abrupt lines increases the tension in your terrifying story and causes the reader's eyes to scan the page faster in an attempt to find solace in the protagonist's safety. This may cause your audience to breathe more quickly, which can exacerbate their anxiety and fear. 5. Utilize fear of the unknown.
How to Write a Horror Story in 7 Steps
The horror genre extends back to ancient folktales centered around witches, evil spirits, and all manner of bad things. Whether you draw inspiration from folklore or from legendary horror writers like Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King, you can find many great reference points for how to write horror stories and screenplays.
How to Write an Imaginative Horror Story
Horror literature can sometimes be seen as "less than" when compared to other genres. People might consider it gimmicky or lowbrow. If this is how you view scary stories, scratch your writing itch elsewhere. Writing a good horror story isn't easy, and horror fans are as discerning as any reader and will detect if the writing is insincere.
50 Horror Writing Prompts from Different Points of View
Here are 50 horror writing prompts from different points of view: Write a story from the perspective of a vengeful ghost haunting their murderer. Describe a day in the life of a vampire struggling with their thirst for blood. Narrate a tale from the point of view of a cursed object that brings misfortune to its owners.
How To Write A Scary Story: The Art of Horror Writing
Building suspense is crucial in horror writing. To create suspense, writers can employ techniques such as foreshadowing, withholding information, or setting a time limit on the characters. In this way, you slowly build tension, making readers uneasy about what might happen next. 3. Structure of a Scary Story.
How to Write a Horror Story in 12 Steps
10 Tips for Writing Horror Stories. Before you begin writing a horror story, here are 8 tips to help you create the perfect, chilling tale: Make it realistic: Don't be afraid to make the story feel real and genuine so that the reader doesn't get lost in the atmosphere of the book.Try to use real-life situations as the base of the story, and then you can add the gore afterwards.
Horror Writing Prompts: 50+ Ideas to Get You Started
Horror Story Prompts. Horror stories don't necessarily have to fit into a subgenre. Any of the following ideas will make for a scary story. 1. A woman is convinced demonic possession is real, and only she can tell who is possessed. The only way to send the demons back to hell is to kill the person. 2.
365 Horrifying Horror Writing Prompts
Here are 365 Horrifying Horror Writing Prompts to inspire your writing every day of the year. Darkness falls. Shadows lengthen. The hair on the back of your neck prickles as the last rays of light fade away. Something stirs in the darkness. You can feel unseen eyes watching, evil lurking just out of sight—the night beckons, hungry for new ...
150 Horror Prompts, Settings And Characters
We have included 50 specific examples of horror story ideas organised under sub-genres. We hope some of them send a tingle down your spine and inspire you to write your own creepy novel! 50 Horror Story Prompts. Word of warning: in keeping with the nature of the genre, most of these prompts contain violent or upsetting themes.
250 Horror Writing Prompts (Scary Good Ideas)
A horror writing prompt is a brief idea or scenario designed to inspire a horror story. It provides the foundation for a plot, characters, conflict, setting, consequences, and sometimes a ticking clock plot device to build tension and urgency. There is actually more than one type of horror writing prompt (see the chart below).
101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts
101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts. 1. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her parents find only a decrepit and scary doll left behind. ... 23. A scare walk in the woods during Halloween is actually real. 24. A bartender serves last call to the only remaining patron, who is the Devil himself. 25. Earth suffers a planet-wide blackout as all ...
5180+ Horror Short Stories to read
Hoia Baciu. The haunted forest. MTheir coach pulled up and they got out. Craig and Luke joined a line of other tourists opposite the first line of trees. An atmosphere of nervous energy filled the air around them. It was their first trip since leaving university in England and they desperately wanted it to be special.
Turning Real Life Experiences Into Horror Stories
The Quentin Tarantino film follows a male stalker who takes unsuspecting women for rides in his "death-proof" cars, murdering many of them. However, a few of the women end up taking charge by banding together and killing the stalker at the end of the film. By writing about that kind of vengeance or empowerment, you can turn a traumatic and ...
67 True Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
👻 You can read 101 of the scariest (and shortest!) true stories in our new collection, 101 True Scary Stories to Read in Bed Tonight, available here. 👻. Raising a serial killer "We (me, my wife and my 3 yo son) are sitting in the food court at Costco. There is another family with a ~4-5 yo girl sitting behind us.
Essay on Horror Story
500 Words Essay on Horror Story Introduction. Horror stories have been a part of human culture for centuries, delighting and terrifying audiences in equal measure. They are narratives designed to frighten, cause dread or panic, or invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale. The horror genre taps into the primal fear ...
Short horror story essay 8 models
1- To obey orders. 2- Giving up bad behavior. 3- Repressing the evil instincts that are inside every human being. 4- Controlling the child in the safety zone next to the parents. 5- Planting correct means and methods through intimidation. Several years ago, my father told me a story about a boy who went out without telling his family where he ...
Kelli Maroney On Narrating 'Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street'
Horror icon Kelli Maroney pens a personal essay about her experience narrating 'Landis: The Story Of A Real Man On 42nd Street'.
The Scottish horror film finally released 17 years after filming
A Scottish horror film has finally been released - 17 years after filming first got under way. The Bench is a grisly slasher where a group of friends take a trip to a remote cabin in Renfrewshire ...
Young Ozarks filmmakers craft horror movie about sleep paralysis
'A real, true horror' Harding began writing the script for "Paralysis" last year, inspired by a conversation his family had at his parent's lake house in Galena.
M. Night Shyamalan's 'Trap' Is Inspired by the True Story of a Sting
M. Night Shyamalan's thriller "Trap" is inspired by a real-life sting operation, Operation Flagship. "Trap" stars Josh Hartnett and centers on a sting to catch a serial killer at a concert. In ...
Riots Break Out Across UK: What to Know
Officials had braced for more unrest on Wednesday, but the night's anti-immigration protests were smaller, with counterprotesters dominating the streets instead.
Tim Walz's military career: What to know about potential VP's service
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive yet plain-spoken VP candidate from America's heartland ...
Brazil plane crash: Cancer doctors and family with dog among dead
Aerial video shows 'horror scene' after Brazil plane crash. 2 days ago. Latin America. Plane crash in Brazil's São Paulo state kills all 62 on board. 2 days ago. Latin America. More. 9 hrs ago.

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