6 Creepy-as-Hell Things That Happened to People While Watching Scary Movies

“I was 12 years old and had just watched the scariest movie ever, Jeepers Creepers. I was really bad at putting my things away as a kid, so much so that my mom would have to ask me 435,435 times to put my bike back before I finally did it. So, after watching this horrifying film, my mom tells me to put my bike away or she’s going to leave it for the garbage men the next day (standard mom threat). It’s dusk and I’m petrified, so I scamper outside to put my bike away, and there’s a grim reaper figure standing along a row of pine trees with an ax — not doing anything or moving — just standing there. I obviously freak THE HELL OUT and go inside to my mom, but she doesn’t believe me. I even forced her to come outside with me. Long story short, it was my dad playing a prank on me (he’s REALLY into horror films) and I never left my crap out again.” — Murphy Moroney, assistant editor, Moms

“One of my college roommates and I went to see The Blair Witch Project with a group of friends at a late screening. When our friend Ali dropped us off afterwards, my roommate said, ‘I’m too scared, I’m going to go sleep at Ali’s house,’ and they left me by myself. Our house was super dark, and they pulled away before I even made it up to the porch. I got to the front door and it was WIDE OPEN. I went inside anyway and found one of our other housemates face-down on the couch. I naturally screamed loudly because I thought he was for sure murdered. Turns out he just forgot to shut the door after coming home and passed out drunk.” — Sabrina Eldredge, senior director

“After I watched The Grudge, my stereo started inexplicably turning on and playing nothing but static. It would just happen at random and had never happened before I watched the movie — it spooked me to my core! I sold it shortly afterward at a garage sale.” — Brinton Parker, assistant trending and viral features editor

“When I was in seventh grade, I was home alone and watched Scream. I got scared and asked one of my guy friends in the neighborhood if he could come over. Instead of being a normal person and ringing the doorbell, he snuck to the back of my house, started yelling, and pounded on the sliding glass door of our family room. I don’t know if my heart rate has every shot up so fast.” — Stacy Hersher, social director

“In high school I went to see a midnight showing of The Strangers, so by the time I got home, it was pitch black and none of the lights in my house were on. My front yard also closely resembled the one in the movie, so I was even more creeped out. That fear soon spiraled when I realized the garage door wasn’t working and I couldn’t pull right into the house. Instead I sprinted to my front door faster than I’ve ever ran before, and OF COURSE it ended up being locked. To make matters worse, I somehow dropped my keys while I was running and couldn’t find them in the dark. I rang the doorbell and then started pounding on the door and screaming for someone to let me in, because I was convinced a masked murderer was about to jump out from behind a tree. Needless to say, my dad really enjoyed all of this at 2 a.m.” — Quinn Keaney, assistant editor, Celebrity and Entertainment

“This didn’t happen to me, but when we were kids, my older sister had some friends over to watch Arachnophobia. (I actually used to like spiders until I saw this movie, and then NO FOREVER.) Anyway, everyone was really silent and still with fear during the movie, and all of a sudden my sister’s friend freaked out because she realized a massive spider was crawling ON HER NECK. Everyone bolted into the kitchen until my mom cleared the area.” — Caitlin Hacker, editor, Celebrity and Entertainment