What I found was that all of the creepypastas contained some combination of 7 horror story elements (I’m going to call them, “creepypasta ingredients”): (A handful of the same stories were repeated across the different sites, but I will touch on those later on.) This infographic breaks down the recipe for a viral creepypasta story:ĬREATE YOUR OWN INFOGRAPHIC What horror story ingredients are most common in viral creepypastas?įor this study, I read 72 the most shared and most discussed creepypastas on four popular creepypasta sites:, , the Creepypasta Wiki, and /r/creepypasta. What spooky elements, narrative choices, and subjects make for a story that people have to share with their friends?

I wanted to take a deeper look at what makes for a viral creepypasta. So realistic that the Slender Man ( p ossibly the internet’s most infamous monster and now, the big screen’s latest horror villain with the upcoming Slender Man movie) tragically inspired two young girls in Wisconsin to attempt to murder their friend. Creepypasta can be text-only, but some of the most famous stories were circulated with a cryptic image or video.

The term “creepypasta” is derived from the internet slang term “copypasta” (copy and pasted text). The term is used for amateur horror stories, some of which have gained such popularity that they have become urban legends on the web. In fact, it might just be another creepypasta floating around the web.īefore you ask, no, creepypasta isn’t a questionable school cafeteria lunch. Have you ever come across a story on the internet that was so weird, so freaky, it couldn’t possibly be true? Warning: this article contains images that some readers may find frightening.

Pokemon smile creepypasta