The Spooky Side of YouTube By Yeti
I don’t know about you but my love of horror doesn’t stop with movies. In fact, I don’t think it really started with movies either. My love affair with horror started with scary stories; I cut my teeth on Goosebumps books when I was young and by about third grade I was reading Stephen King. Through the years, this craving for a good spooky narrative hasn’t diminished in the least. But as I got a bit older I found out that there were real monsters in the world and I started to delve into true crime. I guess what I’m getting at here is that if it’s scary, spooky, or just plain weird I’m probably interested. Imagine my surprise when I found out that there were hundreds of hours of great horror content just waiting for me on YouTube.
You may be aware of the horror community on YouTube and if so, that’s cool; maybe I can point you to some channels that you haven’t checked out yet, maybe we share favorites. If there are some that you think I should check out, stop by my Insta and shoot me links, I’m always up for new stuff. If you’re not aware of the spooky goodness hiding behind the lyric videos and pranks, allow me to introduce you to some of my favorite channels. Maybe you’ll get hooked too.
Over the past couple years, creepypasta and true horror story narrations have slowly taken the place of music as the soundtrack to most of my daily activities. In my opinion, it is hard to beat a well written and well narrated story. You can find just about whatever tickles your fancy when it comes to narrations. You want to check out some classic creepypastas? Not a problem. You want some new and original stories? Done. Ghost stories? You betchya. My personal favorites are the true stories, though: first-hand accounts of fucked up things happening to everyday people. Sure, some of them may not be true, but they’re never really outside the realm of possibility.
Most of my of the narrators on my list do a mixture of true stories pulled from Reddit’s Let’s Not Meet forum or submitted by subscribers and scary stories of the paranormal kind. Guys like Urmaker, Be.Busta, Mortis Media, and Lazy Masquerade do a killer job of narrating the whole spooky spectrum. Never underestimate a good narration; it can take an okay story to the next level the same way a bad reading can make a good story not so great; they’ve all got great voices and know how to build an atmosphere with their reading. Regular uploads, great story selection, and plenty of audience interaction make these really standout channels in my book.
There are a couple channels that focus almost solely on fictional stories pulled from various sources; these just so happen to be my absolute favorite narration channels. Not only do they deliver some great content but they also showcase up and coming authors and their works. So, a side effect of these channels is discovering new authors to check out or series to read. Creeparoni is not only a talented storyteller with a great voice but she also narrated the entire Hyraqq Tobit series by K. Banning Kellum; it’s a really long, enthralling, and all around incredible series more than worth the time it takes to finish it and Creeparoni’s narration makes it that much better. But hands down, my favorite narrator on YouTube is Dr. Creepen Van Pasta. Holy shit guys. He’s got great story selection, a regular upload schedule, and the voice of a god. Seriously, I’ve got a weird mancrush on this dude’s voice. If butter and Vincent Price had a love child and dressed it exclusively in silk pajamas it would be the good Doctor’s voice. Both of these channels are worth checking out if you’ve got an itch that can only be scratched by excellent storytelling.
When stories don’t quite hit the spot and I’m craving some information with my darkness, there are a few channels that never let me down.
Cayleigh Elise covers a variety of subjects from subscriber stories to folklore to unsolved mysteries. The latter is done in the form of two series Dark Matters and The Nameless. Dark Matters presents unsolved cases, the available facts about them, and popular theories surrounding the answers. The Nameless presents cases of those who lost not only their lives but their identities in death. These cases would be interesting on their own but the way they are presented makes these videos really stand out. Cayleigh takes care to give the facts and information available without bias toward one theory or another. She’s using the platform she has to raise awareness for these cases and it is truly awesome. The rest of her content is solid as well and when the content is less serious her personality is endlessly entertaining.
Rob Dyke has all kinds of content but my favorite videos from him are from the series Seriously Strange and Anatomy of Murder. Seriously Strange looks at all manner of dark topics; from serial killers to paranormal photos to crazy ass historical figures Seriously Strange delivers the goods. Anatomy of Murder takes an in-depth look at either a killer or a particular case for each episode. The sheer number of creepy facts that you can learn from these videos is more than enough reason to give them a look; Rob’s delivery and wit don’t hurt either. If you find yourself disturbed by all this darkness, Rob Dyke also makes some absofuckinglutely hilarious content to take the edge off.
Another truly interesting channel I’ve recently stumbled upon is The Paranormal Scholar. My favorite videos on this channel are pretty much short documentaries that give the facts behind many popular horror topics such as the Annabelle doll, the Ouija Board demon ZoZo, and the Enfield haunting to name a few. The variety and quality of content make this channel a killer resource for all things creepy.
Okay, remember how I said I dig weird stuff? I know that the Internet is filled to the brim with weird shit but there’s only one place on YouTube I go to get my weird shit fix. This channel isn’t focused on the weird, dark, or creepy content, it’s actually a gaming channel but their old creepypasta narrations are what got me into narrations and things in the first place the channel is called SomeOrdinaryGamers and it’s been around for a long time. If you’re not subscribed, you’re really missing out. SomeOrdinaryGamers has a series called Deep Web Browsing where the host, Mutahar, delves into the deep web to see what’s really out there. You quickly find out that most of the deep web horror stories that you’ve heard are total bullshit but there is some really dark, creepy, and downright fucking weird stuff on the deep web. So stop by, have a couple laughs, and prepare to lose a little more faith in humanity.
That’s all I’ve got for today, folks. Do yourself a favor and check out the links to these cool ass channels and get lost in the hours of content that awaits you. I’ll be back next week with more random stuff!
LINKS
Urmaker:
Mortis Media:
Lazy Masquerade:
Be.Busta:
Dr. Creepen:
Creeparoni:
Cayleigh Elise:
Rob Dyke:
The Paranormal Scholar:
SomeOrdinaryGamers: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtMVHI3AJD4Qk4hcbZnI9ZQ
