The internet loves horror. From scary stories and short films to frightening podcasts and games, you can have a terrifyingly good time for free online.
Subreddits like NoSleep and Creepypasta are the go-to places to get your share of blood-curdling tales, and some classic horror novels are free to read online. But apart from that, there's an odd assortment of things you can find on the internet if you're into horror. Whether you're in the mood because of Halloween or just generally enjoy creepy and scary stuff, you'll find a medley of enjoyable items in this list.
1. The No Sleep Podcast (Podcast): High Production Audio Horror Stories
The No Sleep Podcast is a horror anthology series that is on its 15th season of strong content. Each episode has high production values with multiple voice actors, sound effects, and tight editing. Listen to it on your speakers before you retire for the night, and you might not be able to sleep.
There are two tiers to every episode of The No Sleep Podcast: free and paid. The free episode, about an hour in length, gives access to the first three short stories. The paid full episode will give you the other three or more stories, which usually include the best produced one of that episode. Most of the stories are sourced from Reddit's r/NoSleep community of horror fiction aficionados.
If you aren't willing to pay, there is so much content already in the free episodes that you can happily spend hours listening to these. There's a handy beginner's guide to the podcast for new listeners to get a feel of what they're in for. Subscribe to it in your favorite podcast app for a spine-tingling time.
2. Screamfest (YouTube): Best Horror and Thriller Short Films
Horror film festival Screamfest runs every October for the past 20 years. If you can't make it to the festival, you can still catch some of the best short films on the official Screamfest YouTube page.
Every week, Screamfest uploads a new horror or thriller short film. By now, the page has built a large collection of fantastic shorts made by student filmmakers, amateurs, and even professionals. Sort the YouTube videos by "most popular" and you'll find a variety of hair-raising mini movies. Typically, no movie is longer than 15 minutes.
The channel also hosts playlists for different types of movies, such as films by female directors, zombie flicks, and animated horror. Screamfest Favorites is a great collection of editor picks that you have to watch.
Once you're done with Screamfest's collection, you can find more horror short films at Short of the Week, one of the 100 best websites on the internet. Again, there's a large repository of hand-picked short films, spanning several languages and countries.
3. Haunted Houses (Web): Find Haunted Houses to Visit Near You
Every town has its share of urban legends, haunted houses, and abandoned buildings with a frightening tale. And many of them are ripe to be visited, either officially or unofficially. If you've got the guts, find a haunted house near you in the USA at HauntedHouses.com.
On the map of America, choose a state to view all the haunted attractions in it. Most of these are official attractions you can visit, with tickets and tours. On the website, you can read a short description of every haunted house, find out the story or history of the "entities" that inhabit it, and whether it's still known to have sightings. You can also find map information and a phone number or website address.
If you don't want to see attractions by state, you can browse by categories like haunted cities, cemeteries, forts, hotels, jails, ships, and theaters. You can also check out ghost towns as well as Civil War ghosts.
Haunted Houses also hosts a section of paranormal videos with paranormal investigators sharing their experiences. But you'll find better versions of this on YouTube or other social media. In fact, you might want to check out some of the creepiest Instagram accounts guaranteed to give you nightmares.
4. Dark Horror Games (Web): Best Free Scary Games to Play in Browser
Dark Horror Games is an entire website dedicated to collecting horror games to play in your browser. Needless to say, these games aren't suitable for children and often include foul language or graphic images. If you haven't played the Slender Man series yet, check it out in the Most Popular section.
As usual with browser games, many of these require you to enable Adobe Flash. Flash Player is dead in Chrome, but you can still use it in Edge, Safari, or other browsers on a game-by-game basis.
There are three other scary browser games you should check out that aren't mentioned on Dark Horror Games. Meggy Kawsek recommends these with detailed reviews of each to help you choose which one to play.
If you're not into browser games, there are some great scary games for iPhone and iPad that would be perfect for horror nuts.
5. Scary for Kids (Web): Children-Friendly Horror Stories
Children have a different definition of horror compared to adults. So if you want your kids to experience a few frights, Scary For Kids has different types of content for that. You'll find a collection of scary stories, scary games, scary videos and movies, scary pictures, and scary things, all meant for children.
The largest repository is of scary stories, which includes both fiction as well as true life tales. Even the "scary things" section is a lot of such reading, with articles on spooky phone numbers, celebrity ghost stories, freaky coincidences, and so on.
The website doesn't have a published set of rules to state how the content is curated, or which age group it is appropriate for. For parents, it's still best to go through the site yourself and find stories that you think are suitable for your own child, depending on their age and sensibilities.
Watch the "Scariest Movie Ever" for Free
So whether it's a story, podcast, short film, or games through which you want to experience a few frights, these websites should have you covered. But of course, you might always want to watch a good horror flick instead.
A recent scientific study hooked up viewers to heart-rate monitors and made them watch some of the top-rated scary movies of all time. The result? Sinister by Scott Derrickson topped the charts. The good news is that you can watch this for free if you're in the US. Register for NBC's Peacock service and stream Sinister online for free. Or of course, you could find one of the other horror movies on Netflix or your preferred streaming service.
