Unsettling Pictures That Need Context To Stay Out Of Our Nightmares
Whether it's because people haven't had their coffee yet or a trick of the lighting, some photos can end up seeming way more intense than they really are. Just as often, however, this is because the visual information in the photo presents a more grisly scene than exists in reality.
Although every photo has a story behind it, some have a way of making sense of truly overwhelming sights. And some photos are disturbing enough without that context to make it so desperately craved.
Just like looking in a mirror
If you've ever had an MRI, you probably know just how wild the imagery can be. It's like an x-ray on steroids. If you've ever had an MRI done of your face, you're probably still recovering from the trauma.
After all, this is what a facial MRI looks like: Gleaming, soulless eyes with no pupils, an unsettling swirl of a nose, and a gaping mouth. On the one hand, it's cool to see. On the other, it's hard not find this off-putting.
He didn't move at all
When Reddit user Hyugama first came into this backyard on a job, they found it hard to start working due to the presence of this man. No matter how much they called out to him, he didn't respond. Indeed, he didn't move an inch as he stared into the middle distance.
However, it turned out this wasn't some creeper keeping a silent vigil over the yard. Some might have guessed that this was a deaf person who wasn't aware the uploader was trying to get his attention, but that's not it either. Hyugama was talking to a lifelike mannequin all along.
It's hard when your dog doesn't get along with itself
This jarring image is a little hard to make sense of at first, but it creates a clearer impression after a moment. From its looks, this is a set of canine-conjoined twins who are having a bit of a disagreement.
However, the truth is that these are two separate dogs. The one on the left is playfully nipping at the one on the right while its body covers the one wearing the collar. Although they look very similar, the one on the left is slightly more cream-colored.
Someone played a little prank on the security guard
As Reddit user OceanSupernova told it, they were doing their routine late-night security rounds when they came across this dummy sitting in a locked conference room. Naturally, it's not the most comforting sight, so it spooked them out and made them wonder who they were sharing a building with.
However, the answer turned out to be pretty benign: Medical students. This dummy is used to practice medical procedures, and that slot in its throat is supposed to let students feed a tracheotomy tube inside. Apparently, those students got a little bored one evening and decided to play a prank.
Context doesn't make this any less creepy
When Reddit user PourQuali visited this gas station, this woman apparently asked them to help pump her gas because her car was on empty. However, the fact that she had a man sitting in her car made the uploader suspicious, as it wasn't clear why he couldn't help her.
Moreover, the man seemed to be trying to hide as he sat in the passenger seat. Feeling that some kind of setup was afoot, PourQuali said they couldn't help, which led her to enter this gas station. The situation became creepier for the Redditor when she stood and stared at them through the door like this.
Rescuers are en route
This haunting photo from 1911 shows rescuers on their way to a shipwreck. It really captures how big the waves are when you're in a small boat in the middle of a storm — and the angle of the sinking ship is absolutely chilling.
No word on what ship this is and how many survived. But it's wild that ocean travel evolved from terrifying scenes like this to our modern-day cruise ships.
The last thing you might see
We envision tornadoes as being neat funnels, somewhat wispy, with a clear line of delineation between the swirling tornado and the surrounding sky. But this tornado is just an ominous black cloud.
For context, this is the El Reno tornado that struck Oklahoma back in 2013. At more than two and a half miles across, it's the widest tornado ever recorded. The winds were in excess of 300 miles per hour. I'm just hoping the person who took this photo survived unscathed.
This ought to freak a lot of people out
This discovery would leave someone with no end of questions, but it appears to be a pie made out of someone's face. And while even a skilled fake would likely leave most people too squeamish to try it, it seems that one brave soul had a slice.
However, this isn't edible at all. There was never a time when it was. That's because this "face pie" is actually a Halloween decoration. Yes, that also means there was never a slice taken out of it either.
This was a lot more fun than it looked
Without context, this is a disturbing sight for sure. Although it's unclear just by looking at it how this person's anguish was frozen in place like this, it looks like either the result of some sadistic experiment or a compellingly creepy case for paranormal activity.
However, this was actually much more fun to make than it seemed. Reddit user HybridPosts and their friends discovered they could make imprints of their faces in this blanket, so they tested it out by making the scariest faces they could.
Believe it or not, this is a photo of a mass murderer
It's not unusual to find rusted-out equipment in the woods, and this can include gas storage tanks like this. However, it's astronomically unlikely that any of them would have a darker history than this unassuming container.
That's because this was the origin point of an infamous 1984 disaster at a Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India. The incident claimed an estimated total of 26,500 lives after the deadly methyl isocyanate gas stored inside was released over a populated area. Although 11,000 of these fatalities came within three days of the incident, the rest took place over several years due to long-term contamination.
As if people weren't already afraid of flying
It's pretty common to be nervous when a flight starts getting a bit turbulent but even the most experienced traveler would turn into a white-knuckle flyer if a panel suddenly fell off the plane's ceiling. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened on this flight, which prompted the pilots to turn it around shortly after takeoff and land again.
However, this wasn't as big of a disaster as it seemed. Planes are designed with a lot of redundant parts just because nobody wants to be in a position where they lose the parts they really need. Still, it's good to know the flight crew took this seriously anyway.
The "Stairs Of Death" look like a vertigo nightmare
These steps in Peru are colloquially known as the Stairs Of Death, and this picture doesn't make it hard to see why. They're incredibly high up with no railings, and the steepness here looks impossible to traverse without collapsing into a blubbering mess.
Yet while that's true to some extent, and travelers do need to be extremely careful while walking on these steps, they're not quite this bad. They're pretty steep, but the wide angle makes them look impossibly steep. After all, it is still a tourist attraction.
One person put a curse on a whole complex with this doll
If this doll was left here as a prank, the joke was so effective that even the person behind it wouldn't have been able to predict how successful they were. And if someone was being serious, it may hearten them to know everyone else feels the same way.
According to Reddit user artbycase2, this doll has been hanging around this spot outside their apartment complex for the last 30 years. As it turns out, everyone including the building's owner is too scared to move it.
Now, this is a trippy sight
There are some things that an unprepared mind will reject the sight of. When something doesn't seem to make any sense, it can be stunning enough that the brain needs to take a moment to rest. However, what's happening here is fairly simple.
Although it's obvious that the woman isn't just a head on legs, why isn't the rest of her body showing? Water can do some strange things to light and make some underwater images appear closer than they are. If she decides to get out of the pool, the image isn't likely to change much until she starts moving her legs.
This shouldn't be happening
As Reddit user StrongResponse6159 explained, they have a habit of breaking their popsicle sticks in half every time they finish one. They didn't give a reason why, but needless to say, this isn't usually what happens when they do that.
They described the stick as bleeding, but even if it's just the dye used for the popsicle itself, that doesn't really explain how it got inside the stick. If this popsicle wasn't red to begin with, we're really going to need an explanation.
Happily, we aren't witnessing the world's first headless dog
When a pet resembles a roast chicken more than it does its own species, it's hard not to get a little startled. But even knowing that this person can't have a headless dog sitting on them in the abstract doesn't automatically reveal what happened here.
Fortunately, the answer is actually pretty simple. The dog found a way to lean its head back while reclining between its owner's legs to make it seem like its head completely disappeared. Who wouldn't see a dog magician?
Can anyone guess who this is supposed to be?
While it's not hard to tell that this is a wax figure, considering how many others are in this room, there's something pretty unsettling about it. Between the way the face is shadowed by the hat and how fierce the expression is, it certainly doesn't look like it depicts a particularly famous person.
However, this is actually supposed to represent one of the most famous people in the world because it's apparently a wax figure of Michael Jackson. Although it's true that most wax figures don't really look like their subject, this takes incompetence to a whole new level. At least that makes it more funny than scary.
Don't worry, the cat's fine
It's hard to see this photo and not immediately think that something terrible happened to this cat. However, no matter how real it looks, something about it doesn't add up. Namely, the cat is way too calm about having its severed, bloodless leg right next to it.
That's because it's completely unharmed. Its leg is simply tucked under its body, and the "leg" in front of it is actually a reconstituted stick used for dogs. That would also explain why the cat doesn't seem interested in it.
It doesn't get any creepier than this
While Reddit user nehala was visiting their now former in-laws, they agreed to walk their brother-in-law's dog, which led them to this eerie chalk message on the road. It claimed that an unknown person was a human trafficker who conspired with someone named Brooke James to end the life of another person named Stephie.
Although messages like these are sometimes the result of one person's paranoid delusions, it seems they legitimately did know something. Someone linked the uploader to an article from The Everett Herald about a Seattle woman named Brooke James — who was eventually found guilty of a fatality — and they confirmed it was the right area.
There's a reason this keeps happening
Although there's nothing inherently disturbing about these stuffed toys, it's nonetheless strange that they keep losing exactly one eye in such violent ways. If a child were doing this, it would be understandable for their parents to start getting concerned about their mental health.
However, it turns out that these are dog toys, and the uploader's dog has a strange habit of biting the eyes out of her toys. It's always just the one eye, too. It's rough play, and it's definitely weird but not quite as worrying.
This denial is likely meant to be as suspicious as it sounds
When Twitter user @wy4bt went thrift shopping, they came across this shirt that seemed oddly and suspiciously specific about where it insisted someone's mortal remains didn't reside. As some may expect, it turned out that there was indeed a body at the specified location.
ABC 10 reported that a missing woman's remains were discovered there, while Daily Voice reported that the person who discovered her was himself found deceased two years later. It's hard not to assume that whoever made that shirt wanted to blow the whistle without being next.
This isn't very common unless you do a specific job
Considering how expensive auto repairs almost always are and how tight money is for so many people right now, some folks would probably prefer to have a ghost in their home rather than sudden car trouble. So naturally, it sent a fright through commenters when Reddit user Exam-Lost claimed their tail light exploded.
However, another user explained that it's likely this is a commercial vehicle that has to keep moving with very little downtime. That meant there was a short circuit in the tail light's assembly, but it was something that was temporarily fixed with larger fuses before the problem became too big to ignore. Only truck drivers need to worry about this.
Just to be clear, the uploader didn't do this
When Reddit user Booooomkin stepped outside one day, they were stunned to discover that someone had filled their lawn with hot dogs, most of which were mounted on sticks. This would be a confusing sight, but it would also inspire a lot of worry that one of the neighbors is having a psychotic episode.
Although they do have a neighbor who fits the profile, she was in a mental institution when this happened. That made it easy for this baffling surprise to make the uploader forget what time of year it was. Indeed, the most likely answer was that it was a senior prank by local high school kids.
This is a little more mundane than it looks
These small pink lumps seem almost alien, but even those who wouldn't go that far would probably agree that they look sickly and mutated. Although it's true that they're not fresh, they're a little more ordinary than this picture makes them look.
Apparently, Reddit user PioneerTiptoe forgot about some red potatoes they left in a cupboard until they went bad and grew those creepy little stems. As such, this is their attempt to replant them and get some edible ones down the line. They buried them deeper after the photo.
Prepare to feel itchy all over
Although many of the photos on display here have seemed unnerving until the context was made clear, this picture has the opposite effect. After all, it looks like this man is only standing in front of an unusual rock formation.
However, his visit to Ethiopia's Omo Valley brought him to a sight that, while fascinating, would also fit in nicely in many people's worst nightmares. As it turns out, this is an incredibly large termite mound. Building a house here is obviously a bad idea.
It's a perfectly normal place that people are scared of
As the name would suggest, Arizona's Petrified Forest is known for its significant presence of ancient petrified wood, though it's home to other fossils as well. According to AZ Central, this feature is well-known enough that the park loses about 12 tons of petrified wood to theft each year.
However, that doesn't mean that wood always stays gone. At some point, the wood and other rocks developed a reputation for being cursed, as rangers reported receiving packages from admitted thieves who lamented the misfortunes they saw in their lives since they stole the fossils. Whatever makes people keep their hands to themselves, I suppose.
Nobody knows why this exists and they may not want to
As far as Reddit user babyEatingUnicorn can tell, this was originally a speculum. For those who don't regularly visit gynecologists and already have complicated relationships with this medical device, it's used to make examining the body's orifices easier.
Naturally, that makes it the last thing that most people would want to attach to a bunch of teeth. Unless whoever did this was making a strange reference to the fairly infamous horror 2007 horror movie Teeth, it's hard to know (and even harder to want to know) why this little craft was made.
This might take a little more than a bath
Based on the strange, furry quality of this arm, it would appear that this person is living with some rare condition that leaves their body covered in thick, white material. Is it bizarre hair growth or some kind of severe fungal infection?
The answer is neither, nor is this photo particularly dramatic from anything but a cleanliness standpoint. That's because all this person did was sand wood for an hour. Apparently, that's enough time to become absolutely covered in shavings.
They're not seeing the forest for the weird thing in the trees
When Reddit user TheMooJuice encountered this figure made of rope hanging from a tree in the Australian rainforest, they asked whether they should be concerned about it. They also mentioned that they were far from any trail.
Those more familiar with the local culture were quick to explain that this figure has no known significance among Australia's aboriginal nations but is more commonly made by the country's hippies. However, they were also emphatic that the uploader should be very concerned because wandering a remote rainforest is a great way to get attacked by Australia's potentially dangerous wildlife.
Good luck calling Animal Control on that
There's always something that's going to delay a big construction project, but this would be one of those sights that would inspire a foreman to say, "In 20 years on the job, I've never seen anything like this." Well, that's how it looks anyway.
In reality, this probably wouldn't be that uncommon of a sight for anyone who's worked in this city for a while. That's because it's a perfectly normal-sized pelican that flew in front of the photographer's lens rather than a giant one that perched atop this skyscraper-in-making.
There's no way to jump without stepping into this storeroom
Although this figure looks a lot like Big Bird, it's also far less approachable than any version of the classic Sesame Street character the public's ever seen. Since its head is a little different than usual and its wearing what looks like a dress and wig, it's unclear whether it's supposed to be a different character.
However, the resemblance isn't a coincidence because Reddit user bogjumly reported finding it at their local PBS station. If this were ever used, there would probably be enough crying children involved to keep it in storage forever. That is unless it didn't always look like this.
It's more of a "no thanks" than a "NOPE"
This photo was taken in Australia, which then makes it easy to create the impression that this is just another example of the terrifying wildlife that roams the smallest continent. A spider that's big enough to drive a car isn't quite as uncommon over there.
However, that's not what this is. Indeed, this spider wouldn't even be particularly terrifying stateside. That's because the web it's sitting on is nowhere near as close to the car door as the angle makes it look. It's actually much smaller than it seems.
They're not supposed to look this terrifying
Considering that the animatronics at Chuck E. Cheese were once unintentionally scary enough to inspire the massively popular horror game series Five Nights At Freddy's, it seems odd to install attractions at a children's theme park that look even scarier.
However, the minds behind these surprisingly creepy figures can't really be blamed for not realizing the effect their creations would have on people. This is from Dutch Wonderland, a theme park that began in 1963. Not only was that long before Five Nights At Freddy's, but even a decade before the first Chuck E. Cheese opened. Children's fare from that era often looks unnerving in retrospect.
The rat fought the ice, and the ice won
This is a block of ice, along with an unexpected surprise. It's hard not to feel for the poor rat who froze to death, but it begs the question of what the little critter was even doing in the first place.
In any event, this ice is tainted (maybe cursed) and needs to be fired directly into the sun. I wouldn't want a rat of any description, living or dead, that close to me.
It says 'safe' right on the label
Old-timey remedies and tonics always seemed to be full of either class-A scheduled narcotics or substances that are literally poison. This pack of, uh...complexion wafers (whatever they are) belongs to the latter variety.
In the 21st century, we live in an increasingly polluted and carcinogenic world, and the long-term effects probably aren't good. But in the 19th and early 20th centuries, people were willingly ingesting things like this. It's hard to say which one will kill a person faster.
Somebody's watching me
People install CCTV cameras for peace of mind. It's nice to know that you have a steady set of eyes watching your property at all times, even while you're sleeping or out of the house.
Sometimes, though, CCTV picks up something you'd probably rather not see — such as a set of eyes watching your property from behind the fence in the middle of the night. Hopefully, it's a raccoon or something, but it could also be a person.
Mold: It's what's for dinner
If you ever microwave something and forget about it for any length of time, even a day or two, it's going to be mold city the second you next open your microwave. Here's an example.
Cold or room-temperature food can survive a little longer without succumbing to mold. But heating food up just invites bacteria into the fray, and that's exactly what's happened here. This person could obviously clean the microwave, but throwing it into an incinerator is also an option.
Might need some reno work
This is an abandoned property in Poland. The best part? It's for sale! It probably isn't move-in ready, but it's definitely a fixer-upper for anyone who fancies themselves a contractor. I'm sure it looks nicer on a sunny day.
It's always helpful to know the history of any property you're thinking about buying, and I'm guessing this place has a lot of history. I'm not sure it's happy or positive history, mind you, but history is history.
Your mom sure is pretty
Redditor SirYiffAlot posted this abomination, saying it was a clay figure they made of their mom back in elementary school. It's a nice effort, I suppose, and props to their mom for keeping it all these years.
That said, this thing is obviously pure evil. Imagine if your kid made something that looked like this and told you it was supposed to be you. You'd be looking up the number of the nearest exorcist within seconds.
They don't inspire confidence
The windows on these doors are definitely coffin-shaped, right? I mean, nothing else really has that shape, and these aren't abstract enough to come off as post-modern. Seeing these coffin shapes would make this an unsettling doorway to walk through.
Making matters worse, these doors are located inside a hospital. Obviously, plenty of people die in hospitals, so maybe it's appropriate on that level. At the same time, plenty of people get better in hospitals — or, at least you'd hope.
Chuck E. Cheese has let himself go
What happens to the animatronic animals from Chuck E. Cheese once they've reached their best-by date? I would hope they'd go to some sort of electronics recycling facility, but apparently, they're brought out to a rural area and just left there.
I wonder if this was placed there precisely because it's so creepy. It's almost like a science experiment: Take a bunch of electronics covered in synthetic fur and see how long it takes nature to reclaim it.
I think a supervillain lives here
This is a subway station in Stockholm, Sweden, and is truly a sight to behold. Rather than covering the walls with boring tiles, the architects elected to just keep the existing rock walls to give the whole scene a cave ambiance.
I admire the effort here, but I can't help but feel that this station looks undeniably cursed. The stark stainless steel of the escalators combined with the subterranean vibe just make this look like a place where Dr. Evil would hang out.
