12 of the creepiest photos we've ever seen that are bound to give you nightmares

August 2024 · 7 minute read

History is saturated with creepy photographs that vary from supernaturally disturbing, to mysteriously intriguing, to straight up terrifying.

From "ghosts" to horrifying historical artifacts and haunted locations, here are 12 creepy photos you won't be able to unsee.

Post-mortem photography was a trend in Victorian England to preserve the image of a family when a loved one died.

Two parents pictured with their deceased daughter. Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Post-mortem photography became common in Victorian England when the rise of early photography coincided with the short life spans of individuals. They were also known as "memento mori" photos, meaning "remember you must die."

As photography was still rare, the death of a family member was often the first time a family considered taking a portrait. They did this to commemorate the dead, and to have an image of the deceased — probably their only one.

A shadow is all that remains of a man incinerated by the atomic bomb that dropped in Hiroshima in 1945.

The shadow of a man left by the atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima, Japan. Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

When the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6th, 1945, it incinerated humans so quickly that "shadows" of them were left imprinted on surfaces.

The above photo, "Human Shadow Etched in Stone," depicts a man who sat on a flight of stairs outside of the Sumitomo Bank in Hiroshima, Japan, about 800 feet away from the atomic bomb when it detonated. He was so close to its detonation point that he essentially vaporized.

This sort of shadow is also known as a "death shadow."

In the 1950s, the US government made fake towns and filled them with mannequins for nuclear testing.

Mannequins set up in the desert of Nevada for nuclear testing. Dick Strobel/AP

Sometimes, real life can be scary enough without the supernatural.

In the mid-1900s, in order to test the impact of an atomic blast on populated areas, technicians created fake towns known as "doom towns" in the desert of Nevada and blew them to smithereens.

In fact, the US dropped a 16-kiloton bomb on one of them to determine if wooden-frame homes, cars, and mannequins — in place of people — could survive a nuclear blast.

The French neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne pioneered the use of medical photography in his experiments.

One of Boulogne's subjects, captured during one of his experiments. Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Duchenne de Boulogne was a French neurologist who pioneered research into the electrical stimulation of muscles. He used photography to accurately illustrate his findings.

The photographs that came from his experiments look like the patients are undergoing some form of torture.

William Hope, a pioneer of spirit photography, took this photo of a couple and an alleged female spirit around 1920.

A photo of a couple that Hope said depicts a young female spirit. Unknown/National Media Museum/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

William Hope became known as a pioneer of spirit photography (photography whose goal was to was to capture ghosts and spirits in photos), and later as a medium: families wanting to get in touch with their deceased loved ones sat for his photographs.

This photo, taken in England in 1963, is of a supposed ghost known as "The Specter of Newby Church."

The Specter of Newby Church. Reverend K. F. Lord/Wikimedia Commons/Fair Use

When Reverend K.F. Lord took this photo in 1963 inside the Newby Church in North Yorkshire, England, it was met with skepticism: many believed the apparition was merely the result of a well-done double exposure.

Lord maintained that the spectre in the photo wasn't doctored.

Sybell Corbet took a photo of the library at Combermere Abbey, which seems to depict the late Lord Combermere sitting in his favorite chair.

The photo of the library in Combermere Abbey taken in 1891. Sybell Corbet/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

As the story goes, amateur photographer Sybell Corbet took this hour-long exposure of the empty library in Combermere Abbey at the same time that Lord Combermere's funeral was taking place four miles away. However, the apparition that appears to be sitting in the deceased Lord's chair is suggested to be Lord Combermere himself.

The notion that he returned to his library so quickly after passing is nice, though.

The interior of the Capela dos Ossos in Portugal is made up entirely of human bones.

Capela dos Ossos in Portugal. Dan Taylor Watt/Flickr

While Capela dos Ossos in Évora, Portugal, looks like a normal chapel from the outside, the inside is covered entirely with human bones and skulls.

Built in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk who wished to transmit the message of "memento mori" — a Latin phrase that means "remember you will die" — the Capela dos Ossos contains nearly 5,000 human skeletons that came from nearby cemeteries. The chapel also includes two desiccated corpses hanging from the walls by chains, one of which belongs to a child.

The Akodessewa Fetish Market in Togo sells talismans related to voodoo magic.

The Fetish Market. Julius Cruickshank/Flickr

The Akodessewa Fetish Market in Lomé, Togo, is the largest Voodoo market in the world. It carries all the supplies needed for various charms and rituals, from human skulls and dead monkeys to armadillo skin and parrot beaks.

While some may find the market unsettling, Voodoo is a religion that is often misunderstood. While many think it is violent, Voodoo believes that every creature is divine, alive or dead, and that there is both a visible and an invisible world, and that these are connected. In Vodoo, death just means transitioning to the invisible world, while remaining present in spirit. 

Museo de las Momias, a mummy museum in Mexico, contains over 100 remarkably preserved mummies.

Museo de las Momias. Russ Bowling/Flickr

The Museo de las Momias came to be after a grave tax, which was implemented in 1865, caused the city of Guanajuato to dig up any bodies related to family members who couldn't pay it, in an effort to extort them.

Because of the dry conditions of the soil, when the bodies were dug up they were incredibly well-preserved. The city decided to keep the mummies in an ossuary underneath the cemetery in case loved ones could eventually pay the grave tax to rebury them.

The horrible practice didn't end until 1958, and by then the ossuary had gathered enough mummified, disinterred bodies to become a museum, which is a popular — albeit slightly distasteful — tourist attraction today.

The "Island of Dolls" along the canals of Xochimilco in Mexico is full of hundreds of abandoned dolls that were apparently a tribute to the spirit of a drowned girl.

The "Island of Dolls" in Mexico. Esparta Palma/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0

The legend of the "Island of Dolls" tells of a resident of the area named Don Julian, who visited the island and met the spirit of a girl that had drowned there.

She haunted him, and compelled him to hang hundreds of dolls from the island's trees in her honor. Then, 50 years after he hung the first doll, Julian apparently drowned in the exact same spot she had.

This boneyard of skeletons dug up from their graves in Havana, Cuba, became a popular photo-op for tourists and in this case, American soldiers.

Men playing with bones in the Colon Cemetery boneyard in Havana, Cuba. theprimitivefold/eBay

As was common in overcrowded cemeteries at the time, the Colon Cemetery in Cuba had a policy of digging up skeletons after five years if family members didn't keep paying for them to stay buried.

The cemetery would dump the bones in a boneyard, which eventually grew to be about 30 feet deep. It became a popular tourist destination, and after the Spanish-American War, what is thought to be two American soldiers were photographed playing with the bones.

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