Spread the love

Chills run down your spine, the little hairs standing up as if to applaud a wonderful performance, all the while a beating drum plays in your ears, your heart picking up the pace. You stare unblinkingly, eyes wide, forehead scrunched up in flustered unknowing. Should you run? Should you hide? Should their smile be as wide?

A sense of the creeps is both unsettling and intriguing. It brings forth a sense of morbid curiosity, leading into a dark hole that is difficult to escape from. And so, dear readers, Bored Panda’s back to bring you more of the creepiest pictures from the recent past, as shared by the Reddit community called Creepy Old Pics.

They’re joyful, they’re satisfying, and they make you question the reality you live in. What could be better? Make sure to upvote your favorites as you’re scrolling through this list. What’s the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen? Let us know in the comments below! But now, grab your teddy bear, turn off the lights, and let’s get into it!

More info: Reddit

#1 Still From British Movie “First Men On The Moon” From 1919. Now A Lost Film

Image credits: Feiruzz

The past holds a lot of lessons and a lot of nostalgia, but there’s something about the pictures shared on r/oldschoolcreepy that make you do a double take, realizing the amount of disturbing yet oddly fascinating things our ancestors partook in. Such as having demons sitting on you whilst you sleep halfway off your bed. Seems like this would give you a sore back, love…

However, ‘creepy’ doesn’t mean the same thing as ‘scary,’ although they belong to the same family of feelings. So what actually defines the sensations we get when we look at these pictures: the limbo between deciding whether to fight, fly, or just ignore and move on with life? To answer this, we need to hit the history books (not literally).

#2 A Baby Found During The Clean Up Of The Chernobyl Accident Is Pushed In A Carriage By A Liquidator, 1986

Image credits: keeperofthecan

#3 She Waits For The Second Coming

Image credits: PleasantChaos0_0

Charles Dickens is credited with the first use of the phrase “the creeps” in his 1849 novel David Copperfield, to mean an unpleasant, tingly chill up the spine. The phrasing of such feelings quickly caught on in society, with psychologists and thinkers of the time putting on their thinking hats to try and figure out the core of creepiness, as well as its existential value.

Ernst Jentsch set out the concept of the uncanny, which was later elaborated on by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay ‘Das Unheimliche,’ which explores the eeriness of dolls and waxworks. For Freud, the uncanny locates the strangeness in the ordinary. What does that mean exactly? Well, let’s dive deeper.

#4 On The Feast Of St. Nicholas In The Town Of Bad Mitterndorf, Austria. St Nicholas Parades Through The Village On A White Horse Followed By The Krampus, Who Warn The Kids To Be Good, Or Else

Image credits: JankCranky

#5 Dressed As The Michelin Man, Pre -1920s

Image credits: MissNightTerrors

#6 New Year In A Psychiatric Hospital, Moscow, 1988. Photographer: Pavel Krivtsov

Image credits: Star_Ship_55

One of the most recent studies conducted was by Frank McAndrew, professor of psychology at Knox College in Illinois. He decided to explore the boundaries of this very familiar feeling by conducting a preliminary survey, which asked more than 1,300 people “what is creepy?” Surprisingly, the answers were fairly straightforward.

Subjects felt more creeped out when a person was not able to follow social norms and cues, with the biggest factor of whether someone was considered creepy being unpredictability. “So much of [what is creepy] is about wanting to be able to predict what’s going to happen, and that’s why creepy people creep us out—because they’re unpredictable,” explained McAndrew.

“It’s about the uncertainty of threat. You’re feeling uneasy because you think there might be something to worry about here, but the signals are not clear enough to warrant you doing some sort of desperate, life-saving kind of thing,” McAndrew stated, continuing to say that being creeped out is different from fear or revulsion.

#7 My Grandpa And His Sister 1946

Image credits: SirSmokeALot4200

#8 My Wife Grew Up Staring At This Picture. No One Can Remember If There Was A Person Behind The Kids, Or A Trick Of The Light

Image credits: Kombucha_drunk

#9 The Twins That Inspired The Twins Of Tim Burton’s Miss Pergerine’s Home For Peculiar Children, C. 1900s

Image credits: MissNightTerrors

When you’re creeped out, your brain and your body are telling you that something is not quite right and you’d better pay attention because it might hurt you, as compared to feelings of fear/revulsion that manifest clear responses of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, all thanks to hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.

However, the physical sensations that come with the creeps sometimes mimic those of the spooks. In 2012, researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that when subjects felt creeped out, they felt colder and believed that the temperature in the room had actually dropped. The chills anyone?

That physical response further heightens your senses and, as McAndrew stated, “You don’t know how to act but you’re really concerned about getting more information… It kind of takes your attention and focuses it like a laser on this particular stimulus, whatever it is.”

#10 Department Store Mannequins Wearing Disney Character Costumes, 1937

Image credits: cosmicmoods

#11 Bizarre Old School Disney Cosumes

Image credits: WhoAmIToday451

#12 1930’s Baby Rattle

Image credits: carmensax

From a developmental perspective, this sort of deduction could be useful in elongating our existence. McAndrew explained: “We’re predisposed to see willful agents that mean us harm in situations that are ambiguous, but this was an adaptive thing to do. Our ancestors saw a saber-toothed tiger in every shadow and a slithering snake in the motion of the swaying grass because it was better to be safe than sorry.”

Therefore, we avoid things that give us the chills. Unless, of course, we’re playacting as such, similarly to the way we enjoy horror films. “It’s going to trigger a lot of things that scare and startle you, but deep down you know there’s no danger,” McAndrew said. “You can have all the creepy biological sensations without any real risk.”

However, humans have proven time and time again that we can’t fully trust our judgment. Psychologist Julia Shaw argues that, when it comes to creepiness, one important feature to note is attractiveness. People that are conventionally attractive are seen as trustworthy overall, which, as we’ve seen in the cases of Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez, is a very big oversight.

#13 Austro-Hungarian Sailors Wearing Anti-Flash Protection Gear, Designed To Protect The Wearer From Short-Duration Flame Exposure And Heat, 1916

Image credits: Star_Ship_55

#14 Cleaning Day At A Church In Leipzig, Germany (1920)

Image credits: reddit.com

#15 Old Photo Of (Twins? Sisters?) With One Scratched Out. Cant Help But Wonder At The Context – Likely Late 1800’s Early 1900’s

Image credits: gwynsbooty

Should we or should we not trust our feelings of the jeepers creepers? It depends on your situation, but I will always say, a gut feeling is not one to be ignored. But for now, dear reader, I hope you’re safe and sound, snuggled under some blankets with a hot cup of cocoa, enjoying these creepy pictures.

Don’t forget to upvote the spookiest ones, and I shall see you in the next one! Have a good one!