10 Chilling Creepypasta Stories That Deserve Horror Movie Adaptations

Summary Creepypasta tales have potential for compelling movie adaptations, with some stories already gaining traction in the film industry.

The Penpal, Borrasca, and Ted the Caver are examples of creepypasta stories that hold the right ingredients for captivating horror flicks.

From Anansi's Goatman to The Left/Right Game, the genre of online legends offers a vast array of chilling narratives ripe for cinematic exploration.

Online legends and creepypasta tales have existed and evolved for decades, but, surprisingly, not a lot of them have been adapted into movies. Since horror is one of the most notable genres in storytelling, many aspiring authors and creatives have taken it upon themselves to share their fictional narratives of the supernatural, the paranormal, and the unexplained through digital mediums. Many of these tales and legends have also garnered enough attention to be traversed to the big screen.

For instance, the growing popularity of Slender Man creepypasta led to the development of its video game and movie adaptations. Strangely, however, even though well-written creepypasta stories are abundant on the internet, only a few have been adapted as movies or shows. While not all of them have the potential to become compelling films, a few have all the right ingredients to become memorable horror flicks or even franchises.

Related A24's Massively Hyped New Horror Movie Is Strangely Reminiscent Of A 15-Year-Old Creepypasta Story A24's new critically acclaimed horror film follows an original narrative but seems strangely reminiscent of a forgotten 15-year-old creepypasta story.

10 The Penpal

By Dathan Auerbach

The Penpal was first posted on Reddit's "No Sleep" sub, where it gained significant popularity before being adapted as a novel by author Dathan Auerbach. Its story follows the first-person account of a narrator who comes to terms with the chilling realization that a stalker was always keeping a close eye on him during his childhood. What makes The Penpal incredibly terrifying is that it blurs the lines between reality and fiction by intertwining everyday events with something sinister, forcing viewers to look back at their own life experiences and question them.

Although the entire Penpal series is fairly long and can be adapted into a full-fledged TV show, the series of stories it walks through can also be traversed to the big screen with a few minor narrative changes. The Penpal also follows an intriguing non-linear method of storytelling, which may be a little hard to execute. However, if done well, it has the potential to captivate audiences and leave its mark on the horror genre.

A few years ago, an adaptation of the creepypasta story was rumored to be in the works, but no updates surrounding its development have been made.

9 Borrasca

By Rebecca Klingel

Like The Penpal, Borrasca was initially submitted to Reddit's "No Sleep." However, after it gained a lot of traction on the subreddit, it was adapted into a full-fledged podcast that starred Cole Sprouse as one of the leads. Borrasca unfolds in a small mining town haunted by strange occurrences, one of them being a loud sound emanating from a place called Borrasca. The story progresses into a terrifying domain when three friends, Sam, Kyle, and Kimber, set out to unravel the mysteries behind their town and soon discover the shocking secrets behind the grinding sounds and the town's disappearances.

Borrasca's writer, Rebecca Klingel, was hired by Mike Flannagan to join the writing team of The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Fall of the House of Usher after the story went viral.

When it comes to Borrasca's overarching atmosphere, the story is reminiscent of Archive 81, which recently got a television adaptation on Netflix before being canceled after season 1. Despite receiving rave reviews from critics, the show's season 2 did not see the light of day. A Borrasca movie would perfectly fill the void left behind by Netflix's Archive 81 cancelation.

8 Ted the Caver

By Ted Hegemann

Although relatively obscure compared to The Penpal and Borrasca, Ted the Caver is another short horror story that circulated on the internet in the early aughts. It follows a unique storytelling format that unfolds as the entries in a man's diary who sets out to explore a mysterious cave with his friends. The deeper he and his friend dig into the cave, the more unsettling the entries in the diary become. An indie movie, Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver, loosely based its story around the original Ted the Caver, and even As Above, So Below shares many narrative parallels with it.

Ted the Caver is also based on some real experiences of author Ted Hegemann, which adds a layer of authenticity to the tale.

However, considering how Ted the Caver was among the first few internet stories that popularized the cave exploration subgenre, it deserves a loyal adaptation of its own. Ted the Caver is also based on some real experiences of author Ted Hegemann, which adds a layer of authenticity to the tale. This authenticity allows a reader to experience the sense of claustrophobia and primal fear experienced by the narrator, making it perfect for a movie adaptation.

Related 10 Internet Creepypastas That Are Still Seriously Scary From a self-destructive Squidward to a man plagued by his stalker pen pal, some classic creepypastas continue to be as terrifying as ever.

7 Anansi’s Goatman

By An Unknown Author

Often touted as one of the most terrifying creepypasta tales, and rightfully so, Anansi's Goatman is similar to John Carpenter's The Thing in more ways than one. As its title suggests, it focuses on a shapeshifting Goatman that disguises itself as a human and infiltrates a group of campers. Before the campers realize that something is off about their group and that they might have taken a wrong turn during their camping trip in the woods, things turn grim as they start disappearing. What makes their situation even worse is that they fail to understand who among them is real and who is the disguised Goatman.

6 The Left/Right Game

By Jack Anderson

The Left/Right Game is another podcast based on a creepypasta short story posted on Reddit's "No Sleep" sub. It focuses on a journalist, Alice Sharman, who decides to investigate a game that reportedly sends its players into an alternate reality. With what follows, she joins forces with a group of paranormal enthusiasts and embarks on a harrowing journey that skews the lines between the real world and the unknown. Although The Left/Right Game adopts familiar tropes, it keeps readers and listeners hooked with its well-timed twists and scares. Owing to this, its movie adaptation would certainly have mass appeal.

Related Jeff The Killer & 14 Other Infamous Creepypastas That Don't Hold Up Along with Jeff The Killer, here are the Creepypastas that don't seem to hold the same horrific fascination that they once did.

5 Candle Cove

By Kris Straub

Candle Cove was once so popular online that it inspired several spin-offs and audio adaptations on YouTube. The story was also picked up by Syfy for its anthology series Channel Zero. Even an upcoming A24 horror movie, I Saw The TV Glow, seems to share similarities with the original story's ideas and themes. The story presents itself as a forum in which a group recalls watching a fictional children's television show when they were much younger. However, the more they talk about the show, the more they realize it was far more twisted than they initially remembered.

The short story ends with a shocking turn that suggests the show never aired at all, and the people who recalled watching it used to stare at blank static on their television screens. Considering its forum format, Candle Cove may not be all that interesting if it was directly adapted into a movie. However, its intriguing ideas can still be used as narrative devices to craft a gripping horror movie about the unreliable nature of human memory and the impact of pop culture on young minds.

I Saw the TV Glow I Saw the TV Glow is a horror film by writer-director Jane Schoenbrun, released in 2024. A young man named Owen is introduced to a late-night TV show that reflects their reality. As the two begin to bond over the series, it suddenly is canceled, causing Owen's view of reality to shatter. Director Jane Schoenbrun Release Date January 18, 2024 Studio(s) Smudge Films , Fruit Tree Distributor(s) A24 Writers Jane Schoenbrun Cast Justice Smith , Brigette Lundy-Paine , Danielle Deadwyler , Fred Durst , Helena Howard , Ian Foreman

4 Annora Petrova

By An Unknown Author

Anna Petrova was a creepypasta hoax convincingly presented as a true story of a woman's disastrous attempt at altering her fate. The urban legend focuses on the titular 19-year-old figure skater who Googles herself and finds her Wikipedia page. To her surprise, the page somehow predicts all the figure skating accolades she will win in the future. For obvious reasons, Petrova grows increasingly obsessed with the page and checks it before every ice-skating competition. She even tries to edit the page when she discovers that the results of a competition are not in her favor.

...holds the potential to be portrayed as a full-fledged movie that combines elements from Black Swan and Predestination.

However, the act of trying to "edit" her destiny leads to disastrous consequences as the cursed page fills with menacing details about her future that even predict her demise. Although Annora Petrova has been largely debunked as an internet hoax, the legend still holds the potential to be portrayed as a full-fledged movie that combines elements from Black Swan and Predestination. It can also be used as a foundational idea for a horror film to explore the consequences of knowing one's fate.

3 Search And Rescue Woods

By Kerry Hammond

Ensuing through the eyes of a SAR officer, Search And Rescue Woods presents a series of narratives in which the protagonist encounters strange occurrences, supernatural events, and even mysterious staircases in the national forest. Channel Zero had presented its own version of the story, but it did not come close to capturing the terrors and intrigue of the original tale. A live-action movie adaptation of Search And Rescue Woods can finally do justice to Kerry Hammond's brilliant short stories.

Related What Channel Zero Gets Right (& Wrong) About Creepypasta Stories Channel Zero is an anthology series that adapts a new creepypasta each season, but how successful has it been in staying true to its source material?

2 Psychosis

By Matt Dymerski

Matt Dymerski's Psychosis is a brilliant tale that highlights how extreme paranoia can alter one's sense of reality and make one believe that the world around them is somehow conspiring against them. Through his words, Dymerski masterfully captures the fragility of the human mind and how one's quest to survive and sustain can often backfire. Considering the psychological depths and layers the story explores, it may be challenging to traverse it to the audiovisual storytelling medium. However, Psychosis is too good of a story to be left unexplored in other mediums.

1 Correspondence

By A Reddit User Named "Bloodstains"

In its opening moments, Correspondence presents a simple chain of emails shared between two friends, Shaun and Ross. All seems well between the two until Shaun heads out for a party one day with his girlfriend and finds himself in a strange part of the town where eerie things unfold before his eyes. As the story progresses, it gradually draws the links between the email exchanges and the bone-chilling events encountered by Shaun and his girlfriend. Since the Correspondence creepypasta tale never leaves a dull moment and keeps a viewer white-knuckled throughout, it could work incredibly well as a movie adaptation.