What is creepypasta? How is it dangerous? Phantoms on the Internet.

Scary stories. In the recent past, it was popular in pioneer camps and among teenagers. "Horror stories" were passed down from generation to generation. At the same time, the listeners experienced similar fears and emotions. A completely different thing is creepypasta.

So what is creepypasta? The creepy stories circulating on the Internet are called “creepypasta” - it comes from the words creepy, which means “scary” and “copypasta” - an inscription that is spread online by the magic key combinations Ctrl + V and Ctrl + C. Most of these stories are indistinguishable from those that were heard in the past: about cannibals, dead people with scythes, maniacs, haunted houses, zombies. But there are also stories that take place only on the World Wide Web.

What is its essence

Creepypasta visits a person when he is sitting alone with a computer screen in a gloomy or dark room. Everyone in the house is asleep. And in this dark room, a network user sits alone and reads creepy. Here he realizes that he is engulfed in such darkness and horror that it becomes scary to even move. Better not look back! This is the specificity of today's Internet horror stories. Moreover, the impressions from them are so vivid and intense that there is a constant desire to feel them again and again. So, having heard enough different stories, you can begin to write your own description. After all, creepypasta, whose stories are terrible and scary, begins its inception.

What does a virtual horror film convey?

For the most part, the images of such Internet inventions appear to be the inhabitants of towns from present life or from the future. There are many monsters among them, ghosts appear from time to time, and mysterious events constantly happen. There are fans of bloody scenes - in this regard, fights break out with stabbings and gunshots. There are visitors from other planets and horrors from the world of the lumpen. From which dimensions the creepy hero will appear, everyone will find out and plunge into the world of the supernatural.

To follow up, we can say that many people are asking questions about what creepypasta really is? This is, to some extent, a separate planet that connects real life with virtual life. And if previously the greatest effect from a horror story could be expected when people communicated in the appropriate environment (at an evening fire on a camping trip, on a fishing trip, or in a gloomy room at a summer camp), today creepypasta is an excitement that every owner of a computer or tablet. What is creepypasta? A photo can demonstrate a fragment for a clearer idea of ​​the topic.

What are the dangers of creepypasta?

How can an ordinary image or video be dangerous to a person? There is a pseudoscientific explanation: a drawing or sound radio wave has a detrimental effect on the nervous system. It happens that even the creation of such files is attributed to the military, manufacturers, or aliens. Another definition is completely beyond reason: animation can be controlled by a spirit or devil who can burn a computer or tear it off. What is creepypasta - many are afraid to even find out! And the third version - there are no explanations in general.

Phantoms on the net

The most basic method of scaring a neighbor using the highest technology is a screamer (screamer). The user receives a link to a photo with wonderful kittens, views it without noticing the gif extension, and soon regrets it. A terrifying apparition with white eyes jumps out from inside the image. This once again proves that creepypasta really exists. If you build such a “charm” into some game or video, its sudden appearance will be marked by a loud squeal. This is a cheap trick that can be seen in thousands of horror films. But, despite all its simplicity, it works.

How to call creepypasta

Bloody Mary is considered one of the most popular characters when summoning spirits. It is necessary to perform the necessary techniques of spiritual protection so that it does not cause any harm. For safety reasons, while the words “Bloody Mary, come” are being said three times, you must have time to draw a pictogram with any marker on your left cheek and mirror. When Mary appears in the mirror, she will find a pictogram on its surface and will no longer be able to get out. But the ghost itself can be observed in the mirror.

It’s best when creepypasta, whose stories are based not only on calling Bloody Mary, is shown in a large company. This makes it easier to draw defensive symbols, and you can run away in all directions when an otherworldly force appears.

When the ritual ceremony with the image is done, you must not, under any circumstances, erase the pictogram from the mirror and from your cheek for three days. Three days will be enough for Bloody Mary to go back into her mirror world, or someone will have time to call her during this time, and she will become a guest of others. But you still shouldn’t relax, since the ghost can get out at any cost and take revenge on everyone.

Like you're kissing your chick and then the phone rings. You pick up the phone and there is a voice: “What are you doing with my daughter?” You tell her and she’s like “my dad died.” SO WHO CALLED?
Worst creepypasta in the history of the Internet

Our ancestors told creepy stories by the light of a torch. We scare each other under the flickering of the monitor, and from the shadows the same monsters are looking at us as a hundred and a thousand years ago. Ghosts, devils and women hide in the shadows of cars and the wilds of the World Wide Web as easily as behind a stove or in a dark forest.

Scary stories wandering around the Internet are called “creepypasta” - from the words “creepy” (“creepy”) and “copypasta” (text that is spread across the Internet by the magical keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V). Some of these stories are indistinguishable from those heard in the old days: the walking dead, cannibals, homicidal maniacs, cursed houses. But there are also legends that take place on the Internet itself.

Ghosts on the Internet

The easiest way to scare your neighbor with the help of high technology is a screamer (screamer). They send you a link to a photo of cute kittens. You open it without paying attention to the .gif extension, and very soon you regret it: from the depths of the picture, a terrible face with empty eye sockets jumps at you like a jack-in-the-box. If you embed such a miracle into a seemingly innocent video or game, its appearance can be accompanied by a loud scream - hence the name. A cheap trick that we have seen in a million horror films and will see in a million more - because, despite all its banality, it works.

Typical screamer.

But there are files on the Internet that are worse than the “squealers.” For example, they say that everyone who watched the video called Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv committed suicide. It's not hard to find a twenty-second video on YouTube with a mustachioed man staring at you through the red haze. No one has ever died from it, but this is only because the video is cut off, but if you find the full version...

Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv. If you stare too long your head will fall off

The photo smile.jpg causes epileptic seizures and insanity - if it doesn’t, then it’s not real. Those who listened to needles.mp3 begin to vomit blood. The picture burningman.jpg, once you open it, will live on your monitor forever.

Different versions of smile. jpg. I brush my teeth with Cripident toothpaste, so they are always strong and sharp!

Rumor has it that the Skinny Man was the inspiration for Hush from Doctor Who.

Now movies are being made about the Skinny Man (Slender Man, Proxy, Entity), games are being made (Slender, Slenderman’s Shadow, Slender: Source, Slendr), and countless creepypastas and fanarts have been created. And amid this creative riot, a question began to sound alarmingly: what if collective inspiration and fear summoned a monster from oblivion? Before 2009, there was no Skinny Man... But what if there is now? And if there is, what other online legends could come to life?

The answer to this question is being sought by a community based on thefarmythos.com website. They collect information about all the fiends of the Network, which there is not enough space to talk about here: the Artificial Baby, the Plague Doctor, the Comb, the Nameless Child, the Mother of Snakes... And only about the Red Hand, the Black Sheet and the Green Fingers you will not find a word there.

P.S. “Depth, depth, I’m not yours...”

Science fiction writers are afraid of computers almost with more pleasure than ordinary users. And we’re not even talking about the universal plot about artificial intelligence trying to conquer the world. The horrors of computerization are much more varied.

In King’s old story “The Almighty Text Processor,” what was typed on the keyboard of an old “personal computer” began to come true. The main character, having discovered this feature in time, “erased” the unloved family from reality and replaced it with a more suitable one.

In “The Programmable Boy” by Alexander Tyurin and Alexander Shchegolev, a Soviet schoolboy came to grips with one of the first home computers - it led the alliance of pseudo-intelligent technology and electronics and nearly plunged one particular family into the abyss of materialism.

Later, when describing virtual reality, writers came up with their own folklore for it. For example, in the famous “Labyrinth of Reflections” Sergei Lukyanenko describes the legends of the ancient Fidonet network: the Invisible Boss, the Lost Point, divers dying in virtuality. And Oldie in the story “Golden Man” created a horror story based on the most real Internet reality. For them, the word spoken in forum battles suddenly gained power - and in response to “Afftar, drink poison,” the addressee ended up in the hospital with severe poisoning.

But a real study of computer folklore in science fiction is still awaiting us.

A separate popular subgenre has become stories that, first of all, cause a smile, rather than horror. These include stories written ridiculously poorly or written deliberately poorly for the purpose of trolling, parodies, stories at the intersection of the humorous genre, etc. In RuNet, the term NPCHDH arose to name them - an abbreviation for the phrase “so bad that it’s even good.” Russian parody creepypastas often exploit cliches of horror stories from children's folklore of the second half of the 20th century. In the English-language segment, “Soviet (Russian) creepypasta” is widespread, parodying at the same time classic creepypasta plots and the so-called. “cranberry” - exaggerated stereotypes of anti-Soviet and anti-Russian propaganda.

Despite the fact that creepy stories were initially distributed completely anonymously, in the 2010s, in both the English and Russian segments of the Internet, many authors appeared who used a permanent pseudonym, and sometimes did not even hide their real name.

Currently, there are separate sites on the Internet that are collections of creepy stories. On some of them, in addition to samples of online folklore, you can also find stories by modern professional writers in the horror genre and works of classical literature that foreshadowed horror literature.

Examples of characteristic characters and phenomena

Typically, creepy stories take place in urban settings, and paranormal phenomena are not associated with traditional mysticism. Readers are also interested in stories in which the mystical element is kept to a minimum, which allows the story to be close to realistic. Some stories are completely in the style of splatterpunk and do not contain a paranormal component at all.

Some famous creepypasta characters

Frequently occurring phenomena in creepypastas

• Anomalous video games: indie game "Theater" (eng. The Theater), NES Godzilla - a pirated version of the NES game Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (English), Sonic.exe - a hacked PC version of the 16-bit game Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991, Toonstruck 2 - a real-life unreleased continuation of the Toonstruck quest (English), mod Jvk1166z.esp of the game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, location “Lavender Town” in Pokémon Red and Green, etc.
• TV channels and websites containing snuff videos: Caledon Local 21, “Where the Bad Kids Go,” “Normal Porn for Normal People,” etc.
• "Lost Episodes"(eng. Lost episode) - lost or removed from public access images, audio and video materials or applications that contain anomalous or extremely scary materials: the TV show “Candle Cove”, the unreleased episode “Squidward’s Suicide” ( English Squidward's Suicide) animated series "SpongeBob SquarePants", an unreleased Disney cartoon "Suicide Mouse" about Mickey Mouse, videos "Grifter" and Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv, the BarelyBreathing.exe application, etc. .
• "Don't look back"- stories in which there is a “breaking the fourth wall” effect. For example, the narrator suddenly informs the reader that under no circumstances should he turn around at the moment, otherwise something irreparable will happen.

Related Settings

Creepypasta as a fandom

In the early 2010s, variations secondary to the original creepypastas began to actively spread - additions, sequels, prequels, reworkings, etc. Against this background, a fandom emerged on the Internet associated with human and anthropomorphic creepypasta characters. Thanks to him, a specific interpretation of the term “creepypasta” arose, meaning precisely such characters, and not the genre of Internet folklore that gave birth to them. A large amount of fan art, including fan fiction, has been created within its framework. The most popular characters were Jeff and Slenderman. However, this fandom has gained notoriety as a refuge for mentally unstable teenagers and is considered “toxic” both in Western countries and in Russia.

Negative attitudes towards both the fandom and the term “creepypasta” are also fueled by media publications in which creepypasta is mentioned in the same breath as “groups of death” and the game “Blue Whale”. At the same time, publications may contain gross factual errors: for example, creepypasta can be called a type of anime.

Crimes

see also

Notes

1. What Does copypasta Mean? | Slang by Dictionary.com (English) , Everything After Z by Dictionary.com. Retrieved October 21, 2018.
2. Jessica Roy. Behind Creepypasta, the Internet Community That Allegedly Spread a Killer Meme (English) , Time(3 June 2014).
3. In the black-black city: What is creepy and what do you eat it with? (undefined) . Habr(October 7, 2011).
4. E. G. Matveeva. When the soul is in the heels and the eyes are on the forehead: markers of fear and modes of involvement in children's scary stories // Bulletin of the Russian State University for the Humanities. Series “History. Philology. Culturology. Oriental Studies: magazine. - 2017. - No. 12 (33). - pp. 120-129.
5. Darcie Nadel. A Brief History of Creepypasta(English) . TurboFuture - Technology(1 November 2016).
6. (undefined) . Creepypasta - Paranormal stories and short horror microfiction.
7. T. A. Mirvoda. Children's scary stories as an object and form of parody in Runet folklore // Bulletin of the Nizhny Novgorod University. N.I. Lobachevsky. Philology: magazine. - 2018. - No. 4. - pp. 206-214.
8. T. A. Mirvoda. Parodies of creepypasta as a component of terrible online folklore // Bulletin of Perm University. Russian and foreign philology: journal. - 2018. - T. 10, No. 3. - pp. 138-148.
9. Lucia Peters. (undefined) . Bustle(25 December 2015).
10. Category:Stories of participants (undefined) . .
11. Category:Literature (undefined) . Darkopedia - Encyclopedia of Horror.
12. (undefined) . 4stor.ru - Scary stories.
13. 10 creepily believable internet horror stories (undefined) . Pabli - daily selections.
14. Arseny Krymov. Creepypasta: legends and horrors of the Internet (undefined) . Fantasy world(May 20, 2013).
15. Annalee Newitz. Who is "Jeff the Killer"? And is his picture haunted by a real death?(English) . Gizmodo - We come from the future.(5 August 2013).
16. Polina Kormshchikova. . 10 most interesting horror stories on the Internet (undefined) . Private Correspondent(November 18, 2014) .
17. Maxim Staborn. Rake is a creature discovered in the vicinity of Birobidzhan. Rake Man (undefined) . fb.ru(April 23, 2015).
18. Mark Hill. The lingering appeal of Pokémon's greatest ghost story(English) . Kill Screen(25 February 2016).
19. Patricia Hernandez. NES Horror Legend Is Turning Into A Real Game(English) . Kotaku - The Gamer's Guide(5 June 2015).
20. Grant Pardee. How Sonic.exe went from a terrifying tale to the butt of furry jokes(English) . The Daily Dot(29 May 2017).