Creepypastas: al dante with a pinch of nostalgia

Written and designed by: Xavier Lee (24-O2)

A tall, lanky man with remarkably long limbs, ghostly pale skin and featureless face dressed formally in a dark suit and red tie viciously hunts you down in the middle of the woods, what would be the first thing you do? Collect a series of eight pages? Or find a way out of the forest? Either way, if these descriptions invoke a sense of familiarity, then you must have heard of one of the most famous creepypastas that roam the internet: Slenderman. While creepypastas are fictional works of literature, they have created generations of fear and unsettling memories. These stories are somewhat “digital folklore”, passed down to be fear fodder for the next reader. Creepypastas have raised a part of a generation and built communities of readers who enjoy the thrill of reading short horror stories. 

Characteristics of creepypastas

Originating from the viral phenomenon “copypastas”, creepypastas follow a similar style of dissemination: copy and paste without crediting the source. Horror stories of the spooky and occult posted on forums, which were wildly popular back then, made them similar to urban legends. These two factors are just one of the many that contributed to the feeling of mystery that creepypastas evoke. Other than the mysteriousness of creepypastas, they bring back  feelings of nostalgia, bearing similar elements to childhood bedtime stories. Being a versatile category of short stories, many adventurous readers have followed the footsteps of their favourite authors and written creepypastas themselves. With the stereotype that creepypastas are written by amateurs, it is no wonder that they are considered to be of low quality and barely hold their own against stories written by experienced authors. 

Disregarding their quality, creepypastas can generally be categorised into historical hearsay and media lore. Historical hearsay is usually written in first person, normally an experience from the author’s childhood, and illustrates a supernatural phenomenon or an encounter with unidentified entities. Media lore on the other hand is lore created around a piece of media, such as GIFs, images, obscure videos, video games, et cetera. 

Historical Hearsay vs Media Lore

One of the first creepypastas, Ted the Caver, exemplifies historical hearsay, written in a journalistic style and supplemented with vague pictures of interesting findings that the author discovered. The story follows the author, Ted, and a friend, Brad, exploring a cave based off the Interstate Cave. Throughout the exploration, they encounter the supernatural as they hear eerie noises echoing through the cave and hieroglyphs being left on the cave walls despite it being unexplored. The story ends with Ted and his friend returning to the cave some time after they left only to meet an unknown fate, leaving the ending to the reader’s imagination. Descriptive illustrations of the journey he took through the cave and complementing it with pictures of his trip really help readers vividly visualise the predicaments the author was in. Furthermore, the unfinished ending makes the story even more compelling as it forces the reader to create an ending they deem fit for the fates of Ted and his friend. 

Conversely, a well-known but overrated example of media lore is Jeff the Killer. The story is developed around a picture of an Asian woman with a white face, gummy smile, oily black hair and beady pupils so small that they look unsettling. It is speculated that early iterations of the image was named prettyFACE or White powder and was photoshopped to give the iconic picture that we all know as “Jeff the Killer”. Jeff the Killer is creepy in a different way from Ted the Caver as the main portion that makes readers so scared is the unsettling picture of “Jeff the Killer” himself rather than the story that was created for the image. However, the backstory of Jeff the Killer cannot be discredited. His depiction as a sadistic, psychopathic killer with surreal stealth who breaks into homes and guts those who do not go to sleep brings chills to teenagers and children reading the story under their covers in the middle of the night.

A special example of creepypastas, known as the “Secure, Contain, Protect” (SCP) foundation takes a unique approach, a combination of both historical hearsay and media lore. Out of more than eight thousand characters and stories, the majority of them share a similar style of presenting their work of fiction. With reference to a media such as Garfield the show, audio recordings or merely a photo of a still object, authors create a backstory for their character by assigning it a code name, danger level and special abilities. Following that, readers can often expect a short recount on the discovery of said character in the form of a documented report. The degree of creepiness varies from story to story but in general, as most stories are grounded in our reality, our imaginations can take over as we visualise and project the stories on top of our lives. Paranoia is hence the main creep factor of the SCP foundation.

Are creepypastas really creepy?

Creepypastas toy with the emotions of man, namely fear and suspense. The scariest stories feature characters getting left alone in a dark setting, keeping readers in the dark about the fate of the character. In spite of this, looking back at current and past creepypastas, they seem to have lost their edge. Consistent readers have mostly noted that they are “not scared of scary images anymore”. They cited various older creepypastas like Jeff the Killer, Smile Dog and Eyeless Jack. Each with their own distinctive scary feature, they sure brought terror to readers when they were younger. However, that is just it, “when they were younger”. The childish innocence and naivety is unrivalled in children, allowing them to believe close to anything they see or hear. Equivalent to the false information used to scare us by our parents, such as a plant will grow in our stomachs if we were to swallow a watermelon seed, the police will arrest us if we were to…,  et cetera, the creepypastas also stir up fear in children, making them fully believe that the monsters are actually real. As we grow older and mature, we learn how to look at things rationally and finally understand that creepypastas are just works of fiction, not a documentation of our reality. Whether creepypastas really remain creepy to readers past the teenager stage is all dependent on the reader.

“Nostalgia”

Nevertheless, maturity is making us dull. The childish innocence provided clarity in all our decisions, never having to second guess ourselves. Yet, we have also become sceptics, always having to question the intentions of others. While it serves as a protection against those with malicious intentions, we cannot help but reminisce about simpler times. We yearn for the redundancy of overthinking, or what some would call the “childish mind”. It was a time when worries were superficial, stress was incomprehensible and tasks were limited to “play, eat, sleep”. The wonder of it all is the difference that age has made in such a short period of time where a mere few years feels like decades. When going back to read creepypastas of our childhood, we guffaw at the way we feared creepypastas. We outgrew our fears but the feeling remained. We long for the mindset again, unplagued by worries. Is a worry-free life not what everyone seeks? The nostalgia – the sentimental longing for a period in the past – hits us like a truck. Unable to recover, we tend to fall back on our habits, clinging to the wistful affection of our past. We repeatedly return to creepypastas, no matter how revolting the stories have turned out to be. 

Conclusion

Comparable to the Italian delicacy, it has turned into a staple in the lives of a whole community. Each story displays a different writing style, representing the author’s influence to the creepypasta community. Each and everyone in the community strives to recreate the originals, passing on the torch to the next generation. Nostalgia plays a crucial part as a motivator, driving older authors to create quality work, never compromising on the standard. While nostalgia plays a part in keeping creepypastas alive, it's not the only factor. Their effectiveness lies in their ability to tap into primal fears of isolation, darkness, and the unknown. Well-written creepypastas build suspense, create unsettling imagery, and leave readers questioning what they've just read. Of course, quality varies greatly. Discerning readers often look for strong narratives, believable characters, and a chilling atmosphere. In the end, the key to a palatable creepypasta is a dash of nostalgia.