As we grow up, we can often become aware of things that our older relatives experienced, but don’t like to talk about.
It could involve what they saw after they were sent to war or it could hit much closer to home than that, but it can add a whole new perspective to these people we might have taken for granted when we were younger.
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Although the tales we’re now “old enough” to hear can often be sad or disturbing, there’s something oddly rewarding about reaching a level of maturity where we can be trusted to hear them.
And although some of these images aren’t nearly as serious as that, others wouldn’t be out of place in those haunting stories.
It’s not the scariest sight we’ll see today, but it seems pretty unlikely that this would entertain most children nowadays.
After all, does it matter how fun this contraption is to ride if a kid refuses to go anywhere near it because of the creepy joker?
It might seem hard to make an abandoned prison creepier, but flooding it is a surprisingly effective way to do that.
Not only will that cold, damp feeling contribute to the atmosphere of dread, but every wet sound that comes from inside is likely to have any curious explorers chasing their tails.
When someone checked this baby monitor, they couldn’t identify what that was in the background.
We might have to resist our natural inclination to blame this on ghosts, but whatever’s going on here, it gave this girl a pretty clear reason to wake up crying.
So many horror movies start with finding a creepy doll in the basement, so it’s hard not to get nervous when it happens in real life.
Of course, it doesn’t help when the mysterious doll is an eyeless wonder like this. It would honestly be less creepy if someone actually designed this to be scary.
It’s hard to tell which is less welcoming, this sight or the pothole that these teeth moulds were put here to fill.
Yes, this was apparently how one dentist decided to take care of the pesky gap in the alley next to their office. Because people aren’t nervous enough about going to the dentist.
This old room only seems mildly creepy, but that changes a lot once you find out what it was used for.
I’m sorry to say that this was a gas chamber at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Whether or not it looked like this at the time, it wouldn’t take prisoners long to realize they were marched into a trap.
This skull may be unsettling to behold, but it would be incredibly painful to live with.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine , the uncontrollable bone growth we see here is a result of Proteus Syndrome.
As we can see here, it’s usually not symmetrical, but the parts that are affected show more overgrowth as the person living with it ages.
Although there are more graphic photos that show how institutions used to mistreat those with mental illnesses, it’s hard to imagine any good coming from this practice.
This image was taken in 1890, when staff apparently saw fit to force their patients into a crucifixion pose.
As far as the uploader is concerned, both of the faces on this dumpster are a mystery.
Although it’s not completely unheard of for a city to be dotted with stickers of somebody’s face, the image of the bug-eyed child certainly raises a lot of questions.
This mannequin leg in the middle of the woods would be creepy enough without the strange message scrawled on it.
It seems to suggest that people are being helplessly restrained somewhere, but I think that’s a about as clear as this photo will get for now.
As someone who is not very good with heights, nothing about this photo is comforting at all.
Not only is the collapse of a bridge something I’d rather not think about, but the way those men are walking on the suspension cables is also tripping my “NOPE” alarm.
This might be the only case today where the truth of this photo is more comforting than it appears.
It seems like we’re being watched by two, burning red eyes, but this is just what a certain model of BT headphones looks like in the dark.
The uploader found this note with seemingly random numbers in their front yard.
Apparently, it’s supposed to be some sort of cryptic warning about the end of the world, but it makes about as much sense as those warnings typically do.
Somebody came across this at a park and I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t hang around for much longer.
Once you’ve seen a beauticians practice head on a a tree with a hammer fist and nobody around to explain it, you’ve seen enough for that day.
This field of spikes certainly looks eerie, but it also serves an important purpose.
According to the JSTOR Newsletter , these spikes are intended as a warning for future generations not to dig here because there’s radioactive waste buried underneath.
This “Park of Souls” was created by a Greek sculptor to honor those who died at a former sanatorium in Athens.
According to The Greek Reporter , the sanatorium was founded to treat tuberculosis, but many afflicted with the disease still died within the facility’s walls.
The Toraja people of Indonesia have a unique response to the tragedy of losing a loved one.
National Geographic reported that family members are treated as sick, but alive for weeks, months, and even years after they die.
Unfortunately, if that loved one is an infant, they are eventually placed in graves hollowed out of trees like the ones shown here.
There’s no sinister story behind this old baby carriage that we’re aware of, but it’s an occupational hazard all the same.
By that, I mean the person who uploaded this often works in the basements of old houses, so they often come across vaguely unsettling sights like this.
What a treat this was for the uploader, who got to experience two bugs most people don’t like seeing in one.
That’s because a spider decided to take up residence in the shell of a cicada that had died here. Because if there’s one thing that makes a carcass more presentable, it’s spider webs!
At least the person who found this was in the appropriate place to have the crap scared out of them.
As far as they could tell, this was somebody’s art project. Whether they were just really unhappy with it or whether putting it in a toilet was part of the art will have to remain a mystery.
