Now’s a Good Time to Click Away
It’s not always the jumpscares that get you—sometimes it’s a creepy click-and-point game or hundreds of seemingly random words. With spooky season right around the corner, it’s time to peruse some of the internet’s freakiest sites.
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1. 99 Rooms
On the surface, 99 Rooms was a simple point-and-click experience with one goal: make your way through every room. However, it wasn’t long before its puzzle elements shone through, leaving us unnerved with minimalist artwork and a creepy bell toll throughout. Once a popular site, it’s only available by download now.
2. Bongcheon Dong Ghost
Creepy website veterans no doubt remember this one from well over a decade ago. The story is scary enough—a crooked woman stumbles along an apartment complex asking our protagonist if she’s seen her baby. It only gets worse when the site takes control of our scrolling and delivers two jumpscares.
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3. Hashima Island
Adventurous clickers can pop over to this site for a look at the long-abandoned Hashima Island. Google ventured there themselves in 2013 to take a series of photographs across the island, now available for your viewing pleasure. Just turn down your volume, unless you want creepy ambient music.
4. Hekate Station
You know a site has lore when an entire subreddit dedicates itself to discovering its mysteries. There’s nothing on this site’s first page besides three triangles, but click them at your discretion and watch the whole thing unravel.
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5. White Enamel
For a long time, people mistook this interactive experience for a game—but there’s more to it than your everyday point-and-click. What makes this so creepy is that it’s part movie and part game. Viewers go through an asylum, starting with admissions agreements right through to the abandoned halls.
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6. Numbers Station Wiki
We could drone on forever about creepy Wikipedia pages, but we have to talk about numbers stations. For those unfamiliar, they’re low-frequency radio broadcasts meant for spies or intelligence agencies. Thank goodness that’s not our job, though, because one listen and we’re wracked with fear.
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7. Zombo.com
Depending on who you ask, this site is either hilariously strange or just plain creepy. Count us in the latter group. Upon clicking, you’ll merely see the site’s name above a perpetually spinning loading symbol—and hear a voice saying, “You can do anything at Zombo com.”
8. The Fifth Nail Exposed
Most are morbidly curious about a death row inmate’s psyche, but Joseph Edward Duncan actually delivered. This violent inmate chronicled his day-to-day life behind bars, providing real-world insight into his deranged mind.
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9. Death Row Information
Speaking of death row inmates, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has a site that contains all the final statements of its prisoners. Statements range from recited bible verses and apologies to nothing at all.
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10. 973-Eht-Namuh
It might look confusing at first glance, but that merely spells out “the human.” However, that’s the easiest part to decipher. The rest of the site includes puzzles and strange text that lead you on an endless goose chase.
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11. The SCP Foundation
The only reassuring thing about this site is that it’s bogus. That doesn’t necessarily make it easier to digest, though. This fictional organization studies everything that goes bump in the night, and its website walks you through each anomaly.
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12. CreepyPasta
Where would internet horror be without CreepyPasta? It delivered worldwide phenomenons like Slender Man, made us second guess our favorite kid’s shows, and taught us all about peeping through keyholes. No shortage of creepy stories lie just beyond a click.
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13. Fright Find
A site for any true thrill-seeker, this archive informs you of all the nearby haunted spots in your area. From corn mazes to supposed paranormal activity, you can find them all with just a couple of clicks.
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14. Scary for Kids
Don’t let this one off the hook so easily—plenty of children’s tales frighten adults. Everything from urban legends and ghost stories to jumpscare flash games can be found, waiting to spook people of all ages.
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15. Simulation Argument
The Matrix revolutionized both the sci-fi genre and our beliefs, but most dismissed it as nothing more than a cool idea. However, philosopher Nick Bostrom dedicated an entire website to his theory that we are, in fact, in a simulation. He breaks down his beliefs in papers and podcast episodes.
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16. 9 Eyes
We’ve all used Google to scope out an area, but Street View offers so much more than suburban neighborhoods. 9 Eyes walks you through the stranger side, showing captured images of collapsed houses and forlorn travelers.
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17. Nobody Here
It’s never good when the first sentence on a website is, “I’d like to apologize for all this.” Here we are though, scrolling through a seemingly endless list of clickable words as a man’s silhouette types nonsense. You almost have to respect the commitment of so many odd pages.
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18. Staggering Beauty
Google this site and its only description reads, “a website to remember.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. Go ahead, control the adorable worm creature…just don’t scroll too erratically (even though the website tells you to).
19. This Man
Thankfully debunked as a hoax, this website still pays homage to one of the creepiest internet mysteries. That little round face and unibrow haunted of us for years, leaving all of us to question if he ever appeared in our dreams.
20. Zoom Quilt
It mesmerizes some. It baffles others. However you choose to enjoy it, this collaborative art project takes you on a neverending journey. Scroll for a minute or scroll forever—the site goes on and on.
