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If you’re a fan of horror movies and video games like us (hi!), then you probably know how much of an impact you can have on the audience with just a single shot of a simple hallway. With the right lighting and decor, you can turn the atmosphere of pretty much any mundane liminal space into something that practically oozes malice and danger.
Our team at Bored Panda has compiled a list of photos of some of the scariest, creepiest, and most sinister-looking corridors ever to exist. Grab your flashlight and flask of holy water, put on your hard hat, and scroll down to start your fear-filled adventure. (…did we just see something skitter in the shadows of that doorway there? Nah, it must’ve been just our imagination…)
We got in touch with Glenn Geher, Ph.D., a professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz and a published author, for his thoughts on fear from an evolutionary perspective. You'll find the insights he shared with us below!

#1 Strong Danger Vibes In This Bar’s Basement

Image credits: noyoureprojecting

Someone who’s scared of hallways probably has deeper and darker underlying fears than drab or dull interior decorations. For example, they might have bathophobia. As per Choosing Therapy, this phobia is a fear of depth, including areas of deep water, cliffs, railings, bridges, long hallways, tunnels, caves, and wells.

Alternatively, being scared in corridors could be related to stenophobia, a fear of narrow things or places.

Or the hallways themselves might not be the main issue, but the dark. The fear of dark is widely known as nyctophobia, as well as scotophobia or lygophobia. Cleveland Clinic notes that around 45% of children might have an unusually strong fear of some kind. The fear of the dark is one of the most common phobias among kids aged 6 to 12.

#2 The Corridor At The Storage Rooms In My House

Image credits: Odd_Masterpiece_9316

#3 The Hallway Outside Of My Apartment

Image credits: TerribleMensch

“The human fear response is one of the best-understood psychological adaptations that has been researched over the years. Generally, we tend to be fearful of stimuli that may have the capacity to adversely affect our capacity for survival and/or reproduction,” Dr. Geher explained to Bored Panda.

For instance, a dark, dank hallway filled with spiders may pose various threats to people. “Spiders themselves can offer lethal bites, for example. Also, spaces that seem unhygienic may well be unhygienic and may well have vermin and other forms of vectors of disease,” the professor said.

“Across our evolutionary history, we evolved fears of these kinds of stimuli as such fears helped to keep our ancestors safe.”

#4 Endless Corridor Some 50 Meters Below The Surface

Image credits: tmoravec

#5 Middle Of The Day In My Apartment. I Can’t See What’s Hiding At The End Of The Hallway

Image credits: grilld-cheez

#6 Started A New Job Recently

Image credits: babel-fisherman

Dr. Geher noted that even though our evolved fears can help us survive, they can also become problematic.

“Someone may be afraid of a hallway, for instance, that they have to go through to get to their office, as an example. Even if the hallway truly is creepy, it would behoove that person to get over that fear,” he told Bored Panda.

“There are various forms of therapy that have been shown to help with a variety of fears—someone with a crippling fear of this kind of stimulus may well benefit from therapy sessions with a highly trained professional.”

#7 Eastern State Penitentiary

Image credits: AbaloneJealous5237

#8 I’m A Flight Attendant And I’ve Been Trying To Get A Good Shot Of This Place For A While. I Give You, The IAH Underground Walkway Between Terminals. I Hate It Here

Image credits: RestlessFA

#9 We Climbed Inside Of A Highway Bridge. This Goes For 10+ Kilometers

Image credits: IamFromSlovakia

Most of us have probably heard of the fight or flight response, right? Well, not so fast there! The reality is slightly more nuanced and complex than popular culture and hearsay might have you believe.

In fact, some researchers argue that there are a total of four main ways that human beings respond to stress and threats. These are the well-known fight and flight (which are very decisive actions), as well as freeze, and fawn.

The fight response happens when someone feels that they can overpower the threat in a direct fight.

According to WebMD, some of the signs of a fight response include intense anger, grinding teeth, a tight jaw, the urge to punch or kick someone or something, crying in anger, and a burning or knotted sensation in your stomach.

#10 This Hallway

Image credits: Tuhyk_inside

#11 Tunnel At My University

Image credits: Desertpoet

#12 What Comes To Your Mind?

Image credits: Yourfavorite-00

On the flip side, a flight response centers on the belief that you can avoid danger by running away.

Your body gets flooded with adrenaline so that you can sprint away from any threats, for example, all of those nightmarish creatures crawling or glitching their way across the hallway.

The signs of the flight response to threats include feeling fidgety, a restless body, constantly moving your legs or arms, and dilated and darting eyes.

#13 My Dad’s Life As A Security Guard

Image credits: reddit.com

#14 I Heard A Loud Noise Down The Hallway

Image credits: Ditnoka

#15 This Is A Section Of The Tunnels Under The State Mental Hospital Where I Work

Image credits: fannypaquin

Meanwhile, freeze and fawn instincts are very different. A freeze response has you stuck in one place when your body, instincts, and mind don’t believe that fighting or fleeing is going to work.

If you’re feeling a sense of dread, have pale skin, your heart’s pounding really quickly, and you feel stiff, heavy, cold, or numb, then you’re likely stuck in a freeze response.

#16 I Work In Security At A Warehouse, We Have A Few Of These Fire Escape Tunnels That I Have To Check For Stashed Merchandise. Always Gives Me The Creeps

Image credits: Anonymous

#17 The Ridiculously Long Hallway At The Camp I’m Staying At

Image credits: AlbertaNorth1

#18 In Between Two Industrial Buildings. This Path Leads To A Fire Escape

Image credits: Friendlycreature

Fawning is the most social and verbal of all the four responses to stress and threats. Some of the main signs of a fawn response include over-agreement with somebody and trying to be overly helpful.

There’s an overwhelming sense that your primary concern is making someone else happy. In grounded terms, this would mean that you try to be excessively friendly with the source of the danger, instead of fighting them, running away, or freezing like a deer in the headlights.

#19 Dorm From The 50s

Image credits: reddit.com

#20 Vernon Park Mall, Kinston, North Carolina. This Old Mercury Vapor-Illuminated Hallway Is Basically The Matrix. I Adjusted Nothing With The Color

Image credits: gueede

#21 Found Myself Lost In A Home Improvement Store. Most Of The Demo Doors Don’t Actually Open

Image credits: evissimus

WebMD notes that fawning can be an indication that someone has had a very troubled childhood, e.g., they were neglected or rejected. Fawning is a way to soothe the threat in order to survive.

People who are prone to respond to stress by fawning are usually overly dependent on others’ opinions, have little to no boundaries, are vulnerable to narcissists, have barely any identity, and are generally easy to control or manipulate.

#22 A Quiet Hospital

Image credits: SpookMaru

#23 Battleships Make Good Liminal Space Photos

Image credits: RevenantAlive

#24 It Was A 5-Minute Walk To My Room At The Mexican Resort. The Whole Way Looked Like This

Image credits: 10per

Your body’s responses to stress and threats are useful if they genuinely help you avoid any danger to your health, welfare, and life. However, if these responses get triggered over simple, non-threatening, mundane situations, then you’re in a pickle.

Chronic stress is utterly horrible for your health. If you get freaked out by random hallways all the time, you’re only doing damage to your body, mind, and probably even relationships.

#25 My Parents’ Hotel Hallway

Image credits: Supersincara75

#26 I Found This Hallway While Exploring On A Ferry I Was Taking

Image credits: Zeera1

#27 My Dad Sent Me This. Italian Liminal Space At Its Finest

Image credits: Content-Chemistry-73

There are lots of ways to handle stress, from meditation and exercise to speaking to a therapist and even relying on medication. In your day-to-day life, when you suddenly feel threatened in a generally safe place, you could try focusing on your environment or reciting a song, poem, or affirmation in your mind.

You could also do mental calculations, visualize yourself overcoming your fears, focus on your breathing, or remind yourself that you are—in fact—safe.

#28 Uncanny Hallway

Image credits: Cesever

#29 This Liminal Tunnel Where I Work

Image credits: Thermal_Photography

#30 My First Liminal Hallway

Image credits: pablomss

Which of these photos of hallways sincerely creeped you out the most, dear Pandas? Which ones would you hate to walk down and why? On the flip side, which of these corridors would you not mind?

What’s the scariest hallway that you’ve ever personally seen? Let us know what you think in the comments. Oh, and we hope any corridors you walk down today are well-lit and definitely not haunted.