A picture is worth a thousand words. And, sometimes a photograph  can be even more frightening than a really scary story. Before you browse through this gallery of creepy photographs, be forewarned: these images may be hazardous to your health. They may keep you awake at night. It’s even possible you won’t be able to stop thinking about them. These photographs are proof that things are not always how they seem on the surface. Ghosts, ghouls, zombies, unexplained phenomena and other freaks of nature await you – if you dare!

Light Show

Mysterious lights in Phoenix…UFOs?

This picture depicts one of the most famous unexplained events in American history, the Phoenix light event. Dozens of people reported seeing strange lights in the sky one night. If you look closely enough, these lights look like they are part of some kind of alien flying saucer. While tried to pass off the weird event as something to do with regular airplanes or military planes, witnesses are convinced it was a UFO.

Child’s Play

Trick of light or something more eerie?

Only one child was intended to be in this picture. At least that’s what the photographer says. Once the film came back, the boy on the left side of the frame turned up. The child’s body blends into the film backdrop, making the toddler seem transparent. Is this a picture of a real ghost? Or a photographer’s trick?

Slender Man

Is this Slender Man?

Is that Slender Man in the background of this picture of three friends out for a hike in the woods, or is it just an optical illusion? Did these three people perhaps get someone to pose behind them as a kind of a hoax? Their smirky grins make us suspicious!

Skunk Ape

Skunk Ape waits in the shadows

For years people in Arkansas, Florida and North Carolina have reported seeing a giant ape that smelled like a skunk. Cryptozoologists think this could be a subspecies of the much sought-after Bigfoot. Most reports have come from Florida, which is where this photograph was taken. A woman in Sarasota said the pictured creature had come into her yard to steal apples and it looked like an escaped orangutan. Authorities say it was probably a black bear, but many remain unconvinced.

Jacko Can You Hear Me?

Is this Michael Jackson’s ghost?

The news media have spent a lot of time, lately, discussing the future Michael Jackson’s infamous Neverland Ranch. The above image – a still from a film report made at the ranch years after Michael’s death,  deserves closer inspection: Doesn’t that look like Michael’s silhouette lurking on the right side of the photo? Given Jacko’s bizarre hobbies, it could be a wax figure or full-size model of the late King of Pop. However, if this is the case, it certainly bears an uncanny likeness.

Tourist Trap

Who is the figure on the left?

The amateur daredevil standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon is actually just a tourist trying to get a fun shot without falling into the canyon below. However, when the man got his film developed, this photo caught what appeared to be a young man lurking in the bushes. Had he snuck up on the tourist with the intention of giving him a light shove? We don’t know for sure, but isn’t it a bit weird that this guy never introduced himself,  and just slunk back into the brush?

Military Jets Chasing UFO?

Maybe the military is escorting the UFO to Area 54

This photograph is taken from a video leaked to the internet. It purports to be a UFO sighting that took place in Williamtown, just outside Newcastle, Australia in 1983. Geoff Masters reported seeing two military jets escorting a UFO. He may have taken the video as well. It definitely looks too good to be true. And Masters claims to have had other close encounters with alien life. However, if you view the short video the shot was taken from, you might have other ideas. It certainly looks like it is straight out of a movie.

Mirror Mirror

What lurks in the hallway could terrify you

This looks like an empty hallway, but when you zoom in, there seems to be a mysterious figure lurking where the hall ends. This could actually be a person’s image reflected in a mirror. Or maybe it’s an actual ghost. The hallway does have a ghostly haze.

Boogie Fever

This disco man is haunting

This photograph of a woman and young girl walking past a school doesn’t seem out of place until you gaze left, behind the chain link fence. See the guy in the 1970s disco suit? He looks like an extra from Saturday Night Fever. His clothes don’t match the ones worn from the woman and her daughter, who were photographed in the early 1990s. So how did Mr. Disco get into the picture? Was it a hoax, or something more sinister?

Alien Alert

This can’t be aliens in Brazil, can it?

Some British tourists got this shot when they were on vacation in Brazil. In the back of the frame was a figure hiding in the woods. When they zoomed it in, it seemed to look exactly like the imagined figure of an space alien. There is much dispute over whether aliens, if they exist, are little green men, little grey men, or something else altogether. But this photograph sure is creepy.

UFO?

How would you like to see this UFO-like object out your window?

The phrase “unidentified flying object” doesn’t necessarily refer to an alien presence. That’s the first thing to remember when looking at photographs of mysterious aircraft. This pic was taken from the inside of a passenger airplane. The flying object is unidentified and looks nothing like a Boeing 747 or a weather balloon. In fact, it looks more like a classic flying saucer. But is it an alien spaceship or a secret military  aircraft we’re not meant to know about?

Hockey Traveler

Hockey player? Time traveler? Or someone else all together? We may never know

Photos of alleged time travellers are always fun to deconstruct. This one was taken in British Columbia in the mid-1940s. But look closer. There seems to be a guy there in modern sunglasses among the other people in the audience. He’s also wearing a t-shirt with a logo on it, which was not common during the era. His hands appear to be holding a camera or other device that is too technologically advanced for the ‘40s.

Some people think they can debunk the time traveller theory. The sunglasses, people say, could have been worn by hockey players at the time. The picture was taken in Canada, so perhaps he was a player. Some observers have gone so far as to suggest that the man’s hair was mussed because he had recently been wearing a hockey helmet. But we can debunk that theory – hockey players didn’t wear helmets regularly until the 1970s. The t-shirt that has an “M” on it seems like a major clue. Although it could be a jersey of some kind, that seems far-fetched. The camera or other device in his hand, however, resembles the devices held by the other people in the photo. It seems to be a camera that is typical of the time. Don’t you wish we knew what all these people were looking at?

A Spy in the Mix? HELLO; THIS PHOTO DOESN’T INDICATE THE LADY HAS A CAMERA, OR THAT SHE ISN’T RUNNING!!!!!!??????? LEAST NOT AS I CAN SEE.

Is she recording the day of JFK’s assassination?

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is one of the most debated events of all time. This photograph shows the infamous Babushka Woman. The woman wearing the Babushka-style scarf on her head did not run away like others did in the photograph. Instead she appeared to be filming the event. She was also seen on the videos made by other people on that day. This woman has never been positively identified and no video from her has ever turned up, despite decades of people searching for her. Although a woman tried to claim she was Babushka Woman in 1970, there was no proof of her identity. She claimed she took a video of the shooting using a Yashica Super-8 camera. That camera didn’t go on sale to the public until 1968, five years after JFK was killed. The Babushka Lady may still be out there, along with her film.

Life on Mars

Mars may hold more secrets than we can ever know

The Viking orbiter went to Mars in 1976, taking hundreds of photographs from the surface of the planet. The results were stunning. Some of the photographs appear to show faces carved into the rock. Others appear to show actual pyramids. NASA and the government have warned people not to read too much into photographs. But UFO-ologists have a different view. They believe the giant face carved into stone proves the existence of life on Mars. Some even believe that the strange rock formations are too close to those from ancient Egypt to be a coincidence.

Gettysburg

Is this a soldier who died at Gettysburg?

This old photograph of a person staring out at the once bloodied Gettysburg battlefield is pretty grainy. There is just one problem: we’re not sure it was intended to include the ghost-like person wearing the hat at all. What if this really is a picture of the battlefield? And the mysterious figure wasn’t visible until after the film got developed. If so, could it be the ghost of a long dead Civil War soldier.

Unidentified Child

Is she a doll or a ghost?

These unidentified child photos sure are creepy. The parents of the baby in the foreground came forward with this picture, claiming that the child in the background of the shot is unknown to them. They concluded that she is a ghost. Although we aren’t calling them liars, it seems  unlikely that such a lifelike vision of a ghost just showed up in this picture. Then again…

The Loch Ness Human

The ghost of St. Andrews..real or fake?

This photo of a person who appears to be a ghost was taken in St. Andrews, Scotland, by the side of a loch. As we all know, there are lots of rumors about mythical figures living in Scottish lochs. Is this one of them? It is possible this is just a person having fun with camera tricks, or that the film was doctored to make him appear blurry. On the other hand, no one can be certain unless the film is analyzed by experts.

Gary Ghost

Gary, Indiana could be a spooky place

This woman from Gary, Indiana had been hearing strange noises in her house. She started photographing the home and property in order to figure out if there was anything paranormal happening. In this photograph, a scary, hazy figure is staring directly at the camera from inside the living room window! If this happened to you, would you move out?

Spaceman

Who are you, spaceman?

The internet has had a field day with this photograph of a young girl enjoying a day and holding some flowers. People think the man just behind her is wearing some sort of space suit. Okay, maybe  he was on leave from NASA. I call this one pretty crazy. It seems more likely that it’s just her father, and the back of his head is just a bit blurry. Or is he wearing an astronaut’s helmet after all?

Giant Tadpole?

What lurks in the water may terrify you

Is this a giant black tadpole hiding in plain sight near Hook Island? This photograph was taken in 1959. Clearly there is something lurking under the water. It could be a giant sea creature, but it also looks like an oil spill. There were many artists working with natural elements at the time, like Robert Smithson and his masterwork, Spiral Jetty, so maybe that’s the explanation.

Freddy Jackson Lives

Is that Freddy Jackson?

This mysterious photograph appears to show World War I Royal Air Force squadron pilot Freddy Jackson. Nothing strange about that, you say? Well, Freddy died before this photo was taken. In fact, his funeral was held  on the same day this photo was taken. That’s him in the back row, fourth man to the left. This photo was brought forward by Sir Victor Goddard, who served with Jackson. Goddard later became known for his brushes with the paranormal. He also claimed to have been involved in a time slip. He flew over Drem, Scotland one day and everything appeared normal at the time – it was a bombed out airbase. On his flight back over the site, the airbase was good as new and the training planes were painted yellow. But how could that be? The year 1919, the airbase had been decimated, the training planes were never yellow and  mechanics wore brown coveralls, not the blue ones he observed from above. Decades later, in 1939, Goddard’s vision became reality, as the new base in Drem used yellow planes and the mechanics wore blue coveralls.

Someone to Watch Over Me

She says her husband was deceased when this picture was taken

The old man staring at the woman who is seated at the table is dead. He was also dead when this photograph was taken. The lady was married to him, and she swears that this photograph was taken after he died. Was she wrong about the date, or is he continuing to be her husband, in spirit?

Ghost on the Grave

This figure unsettles many who see it

There are way too many creepy child photographs around! This one was supposed to be a shot of a grave and tombstone. Only when the film was developed did a young child appear, smiling by the grave. The child has the see-through effect that we tend to associate with ghosts. But is that really what happened, or is it a real child who was actually in the photo all along? You be the judge.

They Might Be Giants

Hoax, or something creepier?

Many ancient cultures tell tales of enormous people, and giants, who once walked among us. These tales are common in Amazonian folklore, Native American origin stories, as well as Nordic yarns about gods and giants. This photograph caused quite a stir, as it appears to show an enormous skeleton and skull. It was reportedly found in or around Brazil. If it’s real, then giants really did exist.

Coincidence or Prediction?

This passenger made a grim joke just before the plane he was on disappeared..did he know?

Here’s something eerie. A person on Dutch Facebook took a picture of Malaysian Airlines MH17 just before it disappeared. He was a passenger on the flight and took it before boarding. His caption:  “If it disappears, this is what it looks like.” Did the person just happen to take that photograph and then make a joke that went horribly awry? Did the person know something was going to go wrong? Did he know the future?

Tales from the Crypt

Who left this gold watch in the crypt?

This amazing little find is a small gold wristwatch. What makes it amazing? Well, it was discovered by Chinese archaeologists who had reopened a tomb in Shangsi County that had been sealed up for 400 years. That modern watch was not made 400 years ago, so how did it get there? Was it a practical joke? Proof of a time traveler? Or did Indiana Jones get inside, lose his watch and then seal the tomb up again?

The Tree Man Cometh

Why take this picture, and who is THAT?

This guy apparently just had to jump out of his car and take a random photograph inside of a forest. That seems like the setup for a faked photograph, especially given the tree-like man hiding out in the back of the picture. Then again, that creature is pretty creepy. If it was a hoax, it had to have been an elaborate one, since this photo was taken before the age of digital cameras.

Starship Airplane

Cave paintings that may have told the future or coincidence?

You are looking at a cave painting from at least 500 B.C. Back then there was no such thing as a car or airplane, or even a bicycle. So how did this drawing of what seems like an aircraft come to be? No one knows. Is it a depiction of an insect, or tool? Or is it the design of some kind of alien spacecraft? 

Tom Thumb

Whoa, whose thumb is that?

The thumbs-up in this photograph of childhood friends really throws some people for a loop. Although some say it looks perfectly normal, others say that because of the way the boys are positioned, none of them could have been giving the thumbs-up. Is there another person standing just behind them in the shot, or is one of the guys just double-jointed?

Break On Through

Is Jim Morrison trying to break on through to the other side?

This photo of a fan posing at Jim Morrison’s grave contains a curiosity. The blurry person in the doorway at the back of the photo looks exactly like Morrison. The Doors frontman had a very distinctive gait and gestures. As much as we’d like this to be real, it seems more likely that the photo simply shows another Doors fan having a bit of fun by imitating his hero.