Creepy towns

My home town was used for filming the horror movie "Silent Hill 2".

Hartford had a very creepy feel even apart from the poverty and dilapidation. Waco Texas made me feel uneasy too.

Downtown Hartford is dead on the weekends unless there is an event going in Bushnell park.

Woodbine, Georgia

Cornwall, Ontario

Twenty-Nine Palms, California. Everyone there seemed to be severely depressed, or maybe they were just Walking Dead.

Charleston, South Carolina. Just visited for the first time. It's beautiful, but the shadow of slavery hangs around the place like a shroud. All those lovely old buildings built by slave labor, the charming tourist market where they once sold human beings into lives of misery, that was a "shadow of the past" if ever I've felt it! Or maybe it was just the oppressive drizzle on the day I was there.

Lordsburg, New Mexico

R1, was that the town that was depopulated? I'm blanking on the name. You grew up there?

R6, why Lordsburg?

R7, more a feeling I've gotten than anything concrete. I've driven through Lordsburg, on I-10, 6 times. On one visit, I stopped for gas and as soon as I opened my car door a violent gust from a blue sky jerked the door out of my hand, injuring my wrist. On another occasion, I visited a dying gas station/grocery where a skeletal man and his wife sat behind the counter, counting pennies. When I asked to use the restroom after buying my gas, they motioned me to a swinging saloon type door at the back of the store, behind which was a single over-flowing commode. On another occasion, I stayed at a small motel and when I asked about my cat being allowed in the room, he said that it would be too dangerous for it to stay in my van as there were "things" that would try to get at it. Perhaps it's the desert, r7; that feeling of having no place to hide from the "things" that might try to get at me. But I will not take that route again.

Needles, CA

R8, that is creepy, especially about your cat. And now I'm curious about traveling with your cat, is that something you do often? The ones I know freak out if they're forced to step out on the front porch let alone wrangle them into a c ar.

Why Needles, R9?

I'm easily creeped out by things ike death and the supernatural, despite that I lived for seven years on the site (or next to the site) of an old execution field - now roads and houses, and I didn't get spooked at all. It was near a junction locally called 'Death Junction' for that reason and Queen Elizabeth had Catholic bishops executed there (among others of course) - probably burned I would have imagined. So it would have been in the 16th century, a long time ago.

Sorry OP, that was kind of the opposite of what you wanted wasn't it? ^^

the reality, or the history, is creepier than the imagination.

I would think a town like Pripyat would top the ultimate creepy list.

Is it Lordsburg or Deming that has the old west motif downtown? Whichever town it is at least makes an effort for a bit of charm, but southern New Mexico is far away from anything worthwhile, and those depressing crossroads only exist for gas and cheap loading; those towns would have been abandoned decades ago were it not for I-10.

i've seen photos of entire cities, with built up skyscrapers and apartment blocks, that were never lived in. The whole city just sitting there unused.

Barstow.

R10, yes I do travel with my cat. But the cat is always in a carrier. I live in CA and my sibs are in the South. I drive only a few hours a day when I'm crossing the country, so that the cat is only in the carrier for 6 hours tops. I've seen lots of creepy stuff on I-10. A beautiful young man freshly killed by a semi-truck. A robber hiding in the back seat of a car counting his cash.

Chinese cities r15.

Pyongyang

R13, where is Pripyat and why is it scary?

LOL, R12.

R17, I think your travel adventures would make a good documentary, a modern day Harry & Tonto.

R16, why Barstow?

R20, they would, indeed. Thanks, my friend.

[quote][R1], was that the town that was depopulated? I'm blanking on the name. You grew up there?

No. Cambridge, Ontario is the amalgamation of Galt, Hespeler and Preston. The town centers were distant from each other but a Toyota plant moved into the area and it's more urban sprawl now with a small downtown area. The filming was in Galt which is where I lived.

From the Youtube comments the first "Silent Hill" was shot in Brantford, Ontario which is about 30 minutes away.

Never been there but look up images of Cahaba, Alabama (Alabama's first permanent capital). oooooooooooooo so HAUNTED looking!

Op, California desert towns and scary in general. Most people that live in those areas don't want to be found. I was stuck in Needles for 3 days years ago when my car broke down and had to wait for the part to come. The motel room I had smelled of incense and piss. I only left to go across the street to a gas station in the day to get junk food. At night constant screaming and fighting in the alley.

New Orleans

I'm going to link to an older thread, not because I don't want this thread to continue, but because it has lots of stories about some of those California desert towns.

Great point, R24, "Most people that live in those areas don't want to be found." The high desert area seems to be a magnet for these types. Shiver.

R25, why New Orleans?

Thanks for linking, R26.

OP, I think the Berks are also creepy as fuck. There was a strong community of Shakers in Hancock, MA, and though the village is really lovely, it's got a soullessness about it that comes through loud and clear. The trails are strange around the whole area - eroded and overgrown - and the people are cold, even for NE, and I was born here.

There were little pockets of them all through those hills. Whenever people are forced to be celibate in some kind of cultish way the strange comes flooding in.

There's this town in Vermont, Stannard. Very strange feeling to the place that evokes the doing of bad things and incest babies crawling around. Drove through only once, in broad daylight, and that was enough for me to never want to go back.

R28, I lived in Pittsfield and Stockbridge and know exactly what you're talking about, although I never went there. I like your analysis about forced celibacy. I remember walking home from work at twilight in P'field, looking up at the purple hills and darkening sky and getting such an eerie feeling that the area had been imbued with evil for a long time and would stay that way.

Jerusalem’s Lot ... I go out of my way to avoid it when traveling in Maine

I lived in Maine for a while and most towns there would qualify. No wonder Stephen King has been so inspired for decades.

All of you who are mentioning New England, just what is it we're talking about? It's so hard for me to pinpoint the rationale behind these anxious feelings? Maybe because it's the oldest part of the US it's just accumulated so much bad juju, or ... what?

Pripyat is the now deserted city next to the Chernobyl reactor. People visit but don't stay too long.

What a great thread. Please post more.

Torrington, CT feels lonesome, downtrodden and haunted. That whole area does.

My grandmother was from Bangor, Maine. It was a creepy town, and Stephen King lives there - so, not sure if it was creepy before he was there, or because he was there, but as a kid it was the weirdest town. I always remember when I was little that there was just something off about this town. I haven't been back in years since she died, but I have very vivid memories of it being eerie.

Abandonded Russia

China's ghost cities. At night these must be freaky deaky.

Agree with Maine. The gray rocks, heavy dark evergreen trees, grayness, the wood-sided dilapidated buildings, cold hard-worn people. The opposite of vibrancy - which is death.

Appleton, Wisconsin - was there for a week for this retreat. I really thought everyone was some android, cheese-eating stepford wife.

Necedah, Wis., where a woman name Mary Ann Van Hoof claimed she had a vision of the Blessed Virgin in the late 40s and into the 50s. The Catholic Church investigated and said she was a fraud. A shrine and cult popped up, affifliated with the so-called Old Catholic Church.

The town just feels creepy and repressed. Baraboo, Wis., has some of the same creepy vibe. That entire part of the state - Ed Gein country - is weird.

I second Hartford. East Atlanta. Much of Indiana. Most of the Inland Empire.

OH my god, Indiana! It's like weirdo central. Remember Polish jokes? (With apologies to Poles everywhere north and south). Just substitute Indianians and you'll get a sense of the place.

Edna Garrett and her sister Beverly Ann Stickle were from Appleton, Wisconsin.

Amboy, Calif., dimwits. Shows up in zillions of prior threads similar to this one.

Who dat, R44?

I used to live in ERIE, Pennsylvania.

Was it eerie or just Erie?

Yuma, Arizona for it's end of the world desolation and quietness. Lambertville NJ for it's feeling that there are a lot of spirits around. Walking around there is really spooky at night. For a bonus, the Gettysburg battleground. Even during the day there are bad vibes there.

Salinas, CA. Could not wait to get out of that town. We spent the night there in a shitty motel and it was depressing as hell and I was legitimately scared.

Agree about Gettysburg even during the day.

[quote] Who dat, [R44]?

You know exactly who it is, R46. Stop trying so hard and stop posing as someone under 60.

Not a town but wherever that area in NJ is that's all pines and has the Jersey Devil or some other urban myth like that.

R52, I'll have you know I'm a proud 64. Harumph.

New Orleans , filth , piss and vomit everywhere. Rabid drug use everywhere.The 14% is 85 % and they blame the white man for Katrina .Lived there several years Knew several people who were murdered Or committed suicide. Most of the locals are inbred. Met multiple Registered sex offenders.If you want to know nastiness, despair and the Underbelly of life. Go to NOLA.

West Hollywood.

R55 - that makes NOLA edgy and dangerous and dirty but not creepy. I would think the above ground mausoleums and Anne Rice vibe is what makes it creepy.

Both, r48. With a touch of ghetto !

I visited Gettysburg a few years ago in the fall, and we took the Midnight Ghost Walk Tour through the battlefield. Everyone was given a glow stick flashlight and it was truly one of the creepiest experiences ever. Hard to describe.

I was dragged to Gettysburg as a kid, and all I remember is some fields and a really boring museum.

Tell me more about what makes the place creepy, what did I miss through a lack of perception?

What do you think made it creepy, R58? The glow sticks or the vibe?

Stepford, CT.

r50 Salinas isn't that bad. There are some decent restaurants, and the Steinbeck Center is there. The downtown has been spruced up a lot. And it's close to Monterey.

The fact that the tour was late night was creepy in itself, and the greenish color of the glow sticks certainly didn't add to the ambience. There is just an undeniable feeling to the place, dare I say haunted, that makes you very aware that this was a place of death. Even if you didn't know the history, which our tour guide provided in detail, you just feel that complete change in the atmosphere when you enter the area, and it's chilling. It's not a happy place. One visit was more than enough.

I've also been to the Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown area in New York State, just before Halloween, There were plenty of creepy tales and tours, and lots of things to do, but it was a much lighter, fun vibe on that trip.

New orleans for sure. It was a blast when I was there,but I was never sad to leave. I never really felt comfortable there.

Anywhere within two hours of Palm Springs. Joshua Tree, Nine Palms, that whole damn area is weird as fuck. Salton Sea area, jesus christ. It's like your brain and soul leave you and you just coast through the weirdness without a thought or muscle to fight it.

I've never felt that before except for Venice. There's something supremely creepy about Venice. I've been about 9 times and it never sits well. There's a dark, odd haunt about the whole place.

Any decaying factory town in New England...Massachusetts is crawling with them. Shit weather, dying (or dead) economies, insular people who don't trust outsiders. I've never been to upstate New York, but it seems like the same kind of deal there, especially from what I gather from true crime. Brother's Keeper comes to mind.

R65, Palm Springs creeped me the fuck out the three times I've been there. I wanted to like the place but never, ever felt at ease there. I don't know what it is. I'll never go back.

R57 , R55 here. I did see multiple ghosts At the old hove shop on Royal , as well as the Andrew Jackson Hotel.

R66 - dead on. And extra credit for the Brothers Keeper reference - perfect.

R67, get about two hours out of Palm Springs and you'll no longer trust your own head. Shit gets real weird out there.

As in, I was driving around 7 pm into Nine Palms and there was an old woman, oddly attractive, singing Creedence Clearwater Revival at the gas station. Black tutu, LED lights in her hair. I looked at her and nodded, said hello. Filled up, got into my car, and was looking at my phone when she tapped on my passenger-side window. The window was a quarter open.

"We'll find you tonight." Then she backed away from the car. Okay, thanks!, I said. I laughed and left.

About twenty miles later, I swear to god, the same damn woman was standing on the shoulder of the road. There was NOTHING nearby. Two-lane highway, I slowed a bit, but didn't stop. I drove by, and she POINTED AT ME as I approached her and smiled, then flipped me off with one hand as her pointer-finger followed me with the other.

God, it was fucking weird as shit.

I hear some kind of chupacabra creature lives in Vegas.

There's that fat racist wannabe drag queen who lives in Texas somewhere. Just avoid Texas as a rule.

And then there's that delusional old fart who lives in the San Fernando Valley, but claims to be living in Europe for some reason.

I think most people understand why a troll would want to lure someone into their lair by pretending they live somewhere else.

We took Irwin road on the outskirts of Barstow to get to calico. High desert, nothing there, but every once in a while a group of three or four mobile homes. No electricity, and surely no running water. I would die if I broke down on that road.

"There's something supremely creepy about Venice. I've been about 9 times and it never sits well. There's a dark, odd haunt about the whole place. "

It's true, but Venice is so different from the everyday world that the vibe of ancient decay is actually a plus, if you time your visit right and don't stay too long. My one visit there was at the end of October, when the crowds weren't too thick, and I could wander at will and pretend I was in an older and more interesting world, at least when I was away from the major tourist centers.

BTW, the seventies film "Don't Look Now" absolutely nailed the feeling of creepiness and ancient decay that you get in the less touristed parts of Venice.

[quote] Salinas, CA [quote]

I grew up there, and while the city has been trying to clean up its image, the place is a weird mix of illegal immigrants/gang members/generally impoverished people in the north and east side of town, and the insanely wealthy in the south side, who work in Monterey/Carmel, but want a big house with a pool. The north/east side (right off the 101) sounds like where you spent the night, given the overall unsettling creepyness. Also there is a persistant fog that never lifts that blankets that area, adding to the awful atmosphere....

I live in Joshua Tree, CA. Yeah, the high desert up here is an odd place. Yucca Valley, 29 Palms, Landers and Wonder Valley all nearby are spooky for most visitors. Not everyone's cup of tea (J-Tree is getting more upscale...was a fun little artsy town but a huge influx of Air BnBs have come in and driven up real estate prices big time).

But the area draws people who kind of want to disappear and that's one of the things I love about it. Things that would seem terrifyingly odd anywhere else are endearingly normal here. Unfortunately a lot of meth heads, but also a lot of weird folks with good hearts.

R66 Upstate NY is indeed very much like that. Go north of Albany and you will feel the sadness, the despair. Not just in the small towns and villages, but the “cities” too. Utica is like someone let all the air out, and only decay remains. I have family up there and every time I go, it feels like heartache. And it’s even worse in the winter.

Berkshires, OP? Witches.

Genoa, Italy. Was once traveling with a friend, train broke down (long story), and we got to Genoa late at night. The pensione was obviously a former palazzo fallen on hard times. The plastered ceilings were extremely high. In our room, there was a shower with a floor drain. It was probably just primitive retrofitted plumbing that went straight down into the ancient sewers, but unless water was actively pouring into the drain, it would roar like a lion. Really terrifying. We had to leave the water in the shower on all night, although just a trickle. Then, awakened at some point by the roar, I got up and looked out the window, and there was a person dressed as a skeleton passing by. (Not carnivale season, either, it was in August). All I saw at first were the moving bones. I would have thought I dreamt it, but my friend got up when I yelled, and verified that I wasn't having a hallucination. Couldn't get out of there fast enough in the morning.

R70,I want to hear more! Did anything else happen that night?

R77, what do you mean? Are the Berkshires know for harboring witches? I'm intrigued.

New England is not the oldest part of the country,

Brit here. I found the whole of the Isle Of Wight gave me the creeps. Couldn't wait to get off that island.

Baden Baden in Germany.

Mainz in Germany.

The German offerings probably had something to do with the residue Nazi vibe. In fact, I'm certain of it.

Marching the Jews along the streets of Baden Baden, 1938 >

They've now reached the Baden Baden synagogue...

where the crowds are waiting for them.

(you asked for creepy)

OP, a little research would give you the answer about Pripyat. Here's a read for you.

This shitty museum in the outskirts of Paris. Wisely closed now for "repairs". Sure.

Wilton, CT for personal reasons.

I don’t know about witches, but the berkshires sure are creepy. Pretty, but creepy, which I like. Dorinda’s beautiful old estate there (RHONYC— MaRY) creeps me out too. But it’s just the place I would love to escape to as well.

I wasn't a regular watcher of American Horror Story, but I did watch the season with Kathy Bates. Just out of curiosity, I Googled her character, Madam La Lurie (sp?) and was intrigued that it was based on a real character. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. After reading a few books on the history of New Orleans, it really is a creepy, haunted city. I had been there several years ago for Mardi Gras, but was too young to care about such things way back when.

I believe that many locations have a history of evil deeds that never came to light, and remain hidden to this day. But there is an undeniable aura hovering in the air, and you just know that some hidden secret lingers. We may never really know the truth about what occurred, but it's not a coincidence that everyone feels it as soon as they enter the locale.

So-called witches these days are not the mole covered monsters you imagine and they do not worship the devil but nature herself. There have been rumors for years of satanic cult centers in the western part of Connecticut and in western Maine and both were historical destinations of fallen Puritans from the original colonies in Boston and Plymouth.

New Bedford, MA creeps me out. Depressing area with lots of old mansions and parts of the waterfront that look like they haven't changed since the early 19th century.

Mountain towns are creepy in general, especially at night when the winding roads and hills make for dark corners no more how many street lights there are. I'm talking specifically about DL fave Asheville, NC, and the much smaller burgs in the higher elevations nearby.

Oddly enough, R92, the town of Stannard, VT is in the foothills and not very mountainous. The brightest little towns in the valley I live in border right on the mountains and are pretty nice.

There are a few places like this in Vermont. HP Lovecraft was inspired enough to mention them. I was looking over a map of the Waterbury dam area and spotted a place where it noted 'murdered girl buried here' - now that's creepy.

💀 It's no coincidence that Steven King bases many of his "fictional" novels in the New England area.

[quote] I visited Gettysburg a few years ago in the fall, and we took the Midnight Ghost Walk Tour through the battlefield.

You did not go through the battlefield at night, but maybe the town. The battlefield is very strictly closed after dusk. NOBODY is allowed in at night.

Even during the day the battlefield is creepy and melancholy. Standing by Pickett's Charge or the copse of trees - picturing the blood and suffering on the grass...very eerie. More Americans died in 3 days at Gettysburg than in the Vietnam Conflict.

Downtown Gettysburg is still very creepy, especially when you see all the bullet holes in the walls of the buildings.

Gettysburg College is notoriously haunted. The cemetery where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address just permeates with sadness. I love visiting this town.

Centralia, PA wins the thread.

It was a cola mining town and they used to burn trash there. The town was built over the mines which is totally typical, but when some trash was burned too close to a mine the coal ignited in it. The fire burned lowkey for a few years but the town didn't get its act together to put the fire out, and so the fire spread deeper and deeper into the mines.

It got to a tipping point at which the fire can't really be put out, and the raging inferno under the town began to compromise the town's livability, with poison gas and potholes with fire inside erupting in more and more locations.

The town eventually had to be abandoned, as more and more parts of it became unlivable. It had thousands of residents in the 60s, but I think just a handful remain today, five or six people. It's a ghost town like Pripyat, but unlike that town, hidden dangers lurk everywhere due to the hellish inferno below.

coal mining of course lol

Atlantic City NJ. Even more so during the winter.

Arden, DE and Rose Valley, PA started as “artists colonies” by the same individual/cult. Everyone in the area knows about what goes on, especially the police, but no one dare makes waves.

So are you going to tell us what goes on, or just leave us hanging, R99?

Xenia, Ohio

R99 - I love those towns. Maybe they were cults when started, but not now. Just beautiful - if dilapidated - houses.

Shijiazhuang, China. I was there less than a day, and been to many other cities in China, but something about this place gave me the creeps.

Yes, please elaborate R99.

Arden DE

Are you talking about Stephens and Price, R99?

I grew up in the town Castle Rock is being filmed in. It certainly is a creepy dying mill town, but I think Athol next to it is creepier.

So anybody who'd live there is an athol?

Hornell New York, Jasper NY, Howard NY, Cameron NY, Dansville NY.

The town in IN where Larry Bird was from..there’s a conference center there. Homes dili Apidated yards ill kept..yikes what a downer.

Beacon Hill in Boston always feels creepy to me for some reason.

They used to hang people on the Common, R110, so I'm not surprised. It's also the home of big mama Roach. Worst infestation of roaches I've ever had was in a little studio on Charles St., on the edge of the hill. My landlord told me it was impossible to get rid of them completely and to use the little roach motels. I used to flick the switch to a mob scene of creepy crawlies until I learned to just leave the lights on.

Arden DE and Rose Valley being founded as an “artist colony” Is a useful term for an occult community. That’s who established it and that’s how it is today. Hiding in plain sight. I’m not saying they hold Black Masses but that is the culture.

Newark, NJ. Went there for an interview. Very depressing and creepy on top of being unsafe.

Southern Wisconsin is really creepy. I'm from Northern Wisconsin and they'll all tell me how creepy that is. I wonder if the whole state is to outsiders. It is an ancient Indian burial ground.

Folkestone, a port-town on the Channel in S.E. England.

Back in the early 00s I was just passing through for a night, but thought I'd died and had ended up in Purgatory. Everything was dingy and broken down and deathly-quiet, and half of the buildings all boarded up. Desertion.

Providence RI is more haunted than creepy. #HPLovecraft #EAPoe

R112, fascinating. The Wiki entry for Arden mentioned that Joe Biden had lived there at one time. Eek.

Basically Arden is just a (nicer) neighborhood of Wilmington. There are much higher end suburbs - where I’m sure he lives now.

Quincy, Illinois, a haunted river town.

Atchison, Kansas, a haunted prairie town.

Brno, Czech Republic. Everyone looked deformed and inbred. Georgetown, Guyana. Everything going to ruin, mold and decay everywhere, and a constant sense of menace. Pale, Republika Srbska. Really thought I might have my throat slit and be thrown in a ditch.

I will second Xenia, Ohio.

Here's a creepy article about Arden, DE and Rose Valley, PA.

Crazy Matt lives in Salinas. 'nuff said!

I lived in Lone Pine CA for one year, beautiful setting during the day but at night the place became frightening. I would walk my dog late at night, bats swooping down, chasing insects. Coyotes howling and yipping from somewhere nearby but never seen. And I always had the feeling someone was watching me in the dark, even though streets were empty and house lights were out. A long-time resident told me of a boy out riding his bike one day, down an abandoned dirt road, who disappeared one day. Three days later he reappears, riding his bike, and goes home, discovering everyone was frantic and looking for him. To him he had been gone for just a while, no recollection of anything that might or might not have happened those three days. Gave me goosebumps!

Two cities in northern Rhode Island, connected by the Blackstone River:

Woonsocket and Pawtucket. Both towns have a very weird vibe and some very strange people.

Woonsocket,RI -- the 'city of secrets':

Did a lot of sexual predators abuse a lot of kids here?

Did these abused kids grow up to be very f*cked-up adults and repeat the cycle of abuse?

There's a story here just waiting to be told!

Wycheproof, Australia.

Far flung nothingness.

Fraserburgh, Scotland.

There's no there, there (even in the Summer time).

R123 Sounds very Less Than Zero - BEE captured that menace well.

Adelaide. Did they even try to catch the rest of "The Family"??

I wasn't born and raised in Rhode Island, but I spent some time in Woonsocket in 2001. During this time, I met a local man who told me about the rampant sexual abuse of children in Woonsocket.

This man was in his 40's at the time.

He described his own harrowing childhood encounter with a sexual predator.

When he was ten years old, a member of a prominent local family tried to rape him. He had to jump out the window of a house to avoid being raped.

When he told his parents about this, they told him to shut up and stop lying about 'such a wonderful man.'

Below is a newspaper article (from 2008) about a Woonsocket teenager who raped and bit a two-year-old. I wonder what this Woonsocket teen's childhood was like.

On second thought, I think I know!

====

Woonsocket man indicted in child rape The Providence Journal. Providence, R.I.: Oct 26, 2008. pg. B.3

PROVIDENCE -- An 18-year-old Woonsocket man accused of raping and beating his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter has been indicted by a Providence grand jury.

John Price, of 182 Bourdon Blvd., was indicted on three counts of first-degree child molestation and nine counts of second-degree child abuse Friday. He is scheduled for arraignment in Providence County Superior Court on Nov. 12, according to the office of the attorney general.

Price was arrested after his 24-year-old girlfriend, whom he had known for two months, left him in charge of her three-month-old son and 2-year-old daughter in her Woonsocket apartment June 29.

When she returned, the girlfriend noticed marks and bruises all over her daughter's body. She found bite marks on her daughter's arms, legs and chest. Her son was not injured.

Doctors at Landmark Medical Center and Hasbro Children's Hospital determined the child had been raped.

A report from the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals deemed Price to be incompetent to stand trial. During a bail hearing for Price on Sept. 18, District Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio accepted the report and scheduled a continuation of the case for Dec. 19. He ordered the 15-page report sealed.

Price, who was 17 when he was arrested and charged, was waived out of Family Court to be tried as an adult. He has been held at the Adult Correctional Institutions since his arrest.

Bomp

Santa Cruz, CA, is a beautiful town, but gives off an eerie vibe. So do some of the small towns in the surrounding mountains. When I lived in San Jose people would talk about there being a lot of Satanists living around Santa Cruz.

R65 I'm glad I'm not the only one who is freaked out about Venice. Have no idea what it is, perhaps the general disdain for the niceties that define the rest of the Westside? I've never wanted to be there long.

I live in San Francisco now and I get the same sense every now and then but the thing about the City is you know you have to be ON. In Venice, you've got the beach, sungoers, etc. but that feeling creeps up on you.

Also agree about the desert. Plan to retire in Palm Springs and never leave the city.

Rhode Island does sound like a pretty awful place to be a child.

👹 The Pine Barrens in Southern New Jersey.

Mendocino aka Salem's Lot

Gettysburg is creepy as fuck. There are just spirits everywhere, you can sense it everywhere you turn. Seriously haunted.

Savannah, Georgia it feels like every street is haunted.

Newtown, Connecticut has long been one of the eeriest places around and was allegedly Satanism central on the East Coast in the 90's. There was a big expose on it then. And not goth kids type of stuff but of the "Rosemary's Baby" variety.

Connecticut has a decidedly creepy vibe in many areas of the state, a sort of time warp, distortion of perspective type of feeling to the place. Weird, isolated estates. Masonic tombs. Strange statues in the middle of nowhere. Too many abandoned mental hospitals to list.

Look at the entrance to the Grove Street Cemetery. Referencing a typical Christian concept of an afterlife? Or something else? That's not a cross on top. Write it off as just Art Deco design fixations if you like.

"The Dead Shall be Raised."

About 20 years ago I was driving from Poughkeepsie, NY to New Milford, CT. I found it strange that there were limited, and by limited I mean there were no highway markers or signs that told a driver where they were or where they were going. I stopped at what looked like a restaurant and asked where I might find the nearest town and no one could tell me. For what seemed like 20 - 30 miles I never passed through a town. Just miles of thick forest and winding roads. It was like a place that time forgot. I also don't remember seeing other cars on the road. I know that this part of New York state is remote but I'd never been in a place that was so isolated. On a hunch I turned left and drove down an unmarked road and in 10 miles there was New Milford. A beautiful town by the way. Later I looked up where Sleepy Hollow was located and saw that it was further south. Perhaps this area of New York inspired Washington Irving in his writing?

Battle of Gettysburg Statistics :

Between 46,000 - 51,000 Casualties

Wounded : 14,531

Captured/MIA : 5,369

Is it any wonder the place creeps everyone out? That's a lot of restless souls populating such a small area. Every step you take, you're probably bumping into one.

I found Needles to be just plain run down, not creepy, but dreary because it was so run down.

Vega, Texas was kind of creepy because it was hot and seemed deserted. We went in a fast food place and ordered food, and the place was packed with people. But they weren't eating - just sitting around playing cards and talking. It seems that the fast food place was the only building in town that had air conditioning. It felt odd.

In fact all of the northern Texas panhandle gave me an uneasy feeling. A hot wind, ominous looking clouds, lack of people or distrustful people - like we didn't belong there.

Great Barrington Mass. Sad, creaky and sighing.

No kidding, R23. I googled and fell on the pic of a chappel that looked like it had two eyes and a mouth. Eerie.

R70, very creepy. It sounds like that old Twilight Zone episode. Except, you obviously made it out alive.

All the tiny farm town in Saskatchewan.

I was about to mention the Isle of Wight as well, r82. I remember the fog rolling in obliterating the huge cliffs - it was unlike any fog I've ever seen. There was a feeling of - a happy yet profoundly mystical energy - in the air.

THANKS A LOT, Rs124, 125 and 130! If our stock value goes down even a little, you'll be hearing from our lawyers.

St John's, Newfoundland. I lived there for a few months and found the city had no energy - felt like a sad, abandoned, neglected, and unloved place. Could not wait to leave.

Should have used r35's words but to describe St John's, Newfoundland:

"lonesome, downtrodden and haunted".

I haven't seen it yet on this thread, so I'd like to throw in Jacksonville, FL.

I drove there for a doctor's appointment, checked in to the Hampton Inn, and then went to the appointment. At first I thought it just looked a lot like Orlando--too much highway, too spread out. But something about the sight of their "downtown" when you're driving across the bridge, so industrial, yet small, and sad looking.

In the evening, I decided to drive into Ferdinanda Beach, which I remembered going to once during my childhood: an adorable Victorian-styled small town. When I got there, the aura (or something), some sense of a broken place, a place that was abandoned, where no one wanted to be. I could even stand it for more than 15 minutes.

Then I got back to the Hampton Inn for the night, and the sense of unease in the hotel was palpable. For the first time in my life, I could sympathize with people who say they've seen ghosts about there being a sadness in the air. I felt sad, I felt like I was going to cry and vomit at the same time. I stayed up til midnight asking myself if I could make the drive home, as tired as I was, just so I could get the hell out of there. I slept a bit, woke up at 5am, backed my overnight and threw the key cards at the front desk and left.

Gross, gross, gross.

^^^packed

R114, I’m from the Green Bay area and agree with your take on southern Wisconsin.

Around about Ripon or Omro, the entire vibe changes. Heading southwest from there, things get weird. The drive from Msdidon to Neilsville creeps me out, even on a heavy traveled highway - 94, as I recall.

It’s like another world.

1975: I was driving from Washington (where I went to school) to Amherst in December, because I wanted to see the Lord Jeffrey Inn, where "Silent Night Lonely Night" was filmed; I thought it might be fun to stop in New York because I'd never been there--it was dusk, & I took a very wrong turn & ended up at a red light in the Bronx; a group of ferals immediately surrounded the car & started beating on it, & rocking it like they were going to turn in over, screaming all the while to let me know I was not welcome there. The intersection was deserted & I began to fear serious bodily harm or worse--I finally got into reverse & got out; I could see things being thrown at me in the mirrors.

I've returned successfully many times to New York, just not the Bronx.

r82 - Isle of Wight is known as the most haunted island in the world.

"This magical island has a dark side. Ghosts and spirits abound and the Isle of Wight has a supernatural energy that's particularly evident in some very haunted hotspots. Strong energy or 'ley lines' running under the Island may be responsible for charging the earth's electro-magnetic vibrational field here, so increasing the psychic potential for ghost sightings....."

I’m glad other people feel like there’s something off about Venice (in CA). Everything that borders it is fine, with the possible exception of Mar Vista. But something about Venice feels a little ill, and possibly malevolent.

I think r73 was referring to Venice, Italy, r155.

I want to hear some more specifics about creepy places.

2001-our ship moored in Acapulco bay, near the old town; I went on a walk down the costera quite a distance, to where it starts to curve; it seemed abnormally quiet, then I began noticing boarded-up and abandoned properties--the large hotels, formerly bustling; not so creepy as melancholy, since Acapulco had always been a favorite destination--I turned back & realized more armed troops were about than ever before; as night fell, we had a beautiful view, as I want to remember her--of course things have gotten exponentially worse since then--I've not returned--heartbroken for Acapulco as she was . . .

Xenia is where the creepiest movie ever Gummo takes place so I can understand it's being on here.

Traveling for me is not what it used to be. Too many places have that isolated, creepy feel to them. I feel as though I just want to turn around and go back to the safety and familiarity of home.

Not to mention the undeniable fact they the world is not what it used to be. I've lost my sense of adventure. Perhaps it's just me. I was always ready to go anywhere at the drop of a hat. Not so anymore.

R133 was referring to the Venice in California, R156.

I stayed in a cheap old concrete motel in Blythe, California (middle of the desert) for $30 a few years back. About 9 p.m. there was a knock on my door and it was a prostitute (I assumed), sort of a tranny looking guy/girl or a guy in drag, about 25 and seedy looking. He/she asked me if I would give him/her/it a ride to the next motel, and I said no, and he/she/it got an interested look and said, "What are you up to tonight? in an inviting way. I just said, "Relaxing, I'm tired," and said "good night" and shut the door. I felt really sorry for that person, in such a run-down part of an old desert town, trying to score or turn tricks or something.

R160, me too.

r150 I used to live in Jacksonville, and I'm not sure how you get a creepy vibe from it. It's crowded with people and cars stuck in traffic. There's a few pockets (which every town has), like the old school in St Augustine, the cemeteries that naturally give off creepy vibes, and a few podunk corners that makes you feel like Hills have eyes, but the city itself is just like any other metropolitan city that has a downtown area that kind of "shuts down" after work hours like downtown Dallas and Orlando.

Not a creepy town but a creepy place. I posted this on The DL before but fits here. In late June, maybe early July 2001 my partner and I took a younger neighbor for a sail in NY harbor one Sunday afternoon. After, we took him to the top of the World Trade Center. I had been there many times with visiting friends, my partner once or twice. We were on the roof walkway. We looked at each other and we knew we were feeling the same thing I said, "Let's get the out of here." He grabbed Jonah's hand and we left without a word. We have never talked about that experience since.

^^I took "fuck" out of the quote but not the "the".

R150,R164 I still am in Jacksonville ,born and bred native.I think the creepy vibe does in fact exist,because under the surface nothing much ever really changes here. Theres still a racial divide,though not as bad as it was,theres still a conservative bent wich rears its ugly head on occasion (like when they tried to pass a human rights ordinance) ,and there is a LOT of crime that doesnt make the news.Parts of Jax are festive (Riverside,San Marco) but the majority of it is mundane as fuck and quite boring. Jax is an odd place really,people either love it or hate it,with the majority claiming to hate it. I think thats because of the dark vibe that isnt far under the surface.

R150 I dont know how you didnt enjoy Fernie ! Its a wonderful little town with friendly people and a great food scene. In fact,Im hoping to one day live there. St Auggie is festive as well.jax has always been a big town with a small town mentality,wich is why its not the great destination it should be. Weve got it all...beaches,rivers,1000 of miles of trails and parks.

Arcadia, Florida.

It used to house a home for the mentally ill. A huge, creepy campus that now houses juvenile offenders, I believe. I did a paper for school on this place after my father took me there for a fucking rodeo.

Anyway, the streets are basically ghosted and the storefronts are something out of a S.King novel. Mostly antique shops, and maybe one restaurant. The vibe is so creepy-it is hard to describe. And, when you DO see a person, you see a mountain type person (but it aint in the mountains) with missing teeth and suspenders.

We went into this place that sold meat and produce. The place stunk of death.

It is a town straight out of a Stephen King novel.

A picture of it.

Me too, R160. Maybe that's why I find this thread so interesting. I'm not embarrassed about enjoying things second-hand now.

Every thread needs a theme song.

Formerly named Forest City, St. Elmo was once a bustling mining center with a population of 2,000 at its peak. By 1930, though, only seven people reportedly resided there, including the family who ran the general store and the hotel—one who is rumored to haunt the place to this day. Now privately owned and maintained, visitors can still swing by the small city, which is said to have some of the most paranormal activity in the state.

Newton, NJ - little community college commuter town. Nasty people with a drive through town. Boarded up downtown, depressing and sad. I took a walk through their town center and it was deserted on a beautiful spring Saturday morning. Old, decrepit buildings not being kept up and owned by rude people who commute to work in NYC and could care less about the town.

There was a natural foods co-op, but it was hidden and hard to find as if the town was embarrassed about it. I asked a few locals for directions and even they didn't know.

r162 Would you rather be in Blythe, California or in Blythe Danner?

Interesting story, r165. Although you and your partner never discussed the "feeling" you both had which precipitated the quick exit from the World Trade Center, have you been able to re-visit the experience mentally on your own and determine what might have brought on the internal "panic" or rush to leave? i.e, Creepy sense of sense of foreboding? Or just general sense of unease?

Savannah, Ga. is one of the most beautiful cities in America but all that Spanish moss at night is creepy as hell.

Collinsport ME.

R70 That sounds like some Stephen King shit! Thanks for just creeping me out.

R162 That was the evil, restless spirit of Aileen Weurnos.

R70 Wasn't that the old cemetery lady from Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil?

Most of the towns on the Oregon and far-northern California coast are a bit shabby at least, but Crescent City, Ca., is the only one that seems really off. Most make an effort to tart themselves up a bit to attract the tourists driving the coast highway, and succeed in being pretty little places where you want to stop and look around, but Crescent City is more run down than most and has a "don't linger" vibe. I'd intended to stop for lunch and a wander, but I hit the road hungry after just a few minutes of looking around.

Later I found out that its main industry is California's only maximum-security prison, Pelican Bay, where the worst murderers and psychos are held. And that much of the town's population is made up by the wives and children of murderers who've followed them there and settled down, so that the town's population is full of criminal DNA. And prison guard DNA. Maybe that was the problem.

Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) is the only supermax state prison in California, r181.

I n the late ninties I went camping for a week in the North Woods of Wisconsin. Usually the small towns I stop in for fuel or supplies and a meal give me great pleasure, but not so much on this particular trip. People seemed to stare at me and my two friends (typical straight couple) and made us feel less than welcome. On our return drive we stopped in a small town to have breakfast, very rural area, and when we opened the door of this restaurant, it was packed, no tables available (odd for such a dusty place). While scanning the diners, they all looked alike, or related. We left promptly and got back on the road, after they all grew quiet and stared at us the minute we walked in. No one approached or greeted us either.

The Ozarks--I was driving cross-country from California to Washington for school, and went off-road at night (ah, youth!) from I-40 to get some z's as it had been a very long day--I ended up off a little dirt road in the midst of a dense forest. It was very quiet, black, & I soon fell asleep--I was awakened by two or three "good ole boys" apparently drunk, wandering around looking to "fuck something up"; the car was filled with moving stuff so I hid the best I could, terrified--they poked around the car, still rambling on about "fucking something up"; a flashlight lit things up & I thought it was curtains, then just as suddenly they left. It was so hot & humid but I had the windows up/doors locked. I stayed there until first light, got back on the freeway, & never looked back. Really, really bad vibes!

Then of course there's Hawthorne, Nevada--extraordinarily remote--not much else until you reach Walla Walla . . . it's a munitions depot, but conspiracy theorists say there's an tunnel from the ocean to Walker lake (adjacent) & used for Xfiles purposes . . . it does have a McDonalds though! Spooky, best not to spend too much time there . . .

Red Bluff, CA. That story of Colleen Stan, the 70s story of the girl who had to live in a box as a sex slave after being kidnapped hitchkiking, took place there. Mount Shasta in general.

SE Portland. The vibe in that part of town is depressing and ominous. You can feel and see the desperation. There's a neighborhood in SE called Felony Flats that earned its name for housing generations of white trash criminals and their ilk. Sex trafficking, prostitution, meth, heroin, etc. The amount of sex shops, strip clubs and liquor stores on one single block is disturbing. Zoning laws for basic decency don't even apply.

R167 Gary Ray Bowles the bisexual serial killer, dubbed the I-95 killer, lived and killed in Jacksonville.

r167 Eh, I wouldn't call it "creepy" though. It's more the feeling of being "unsafe" in certain areas because of crime, which I attribute more to the growth of the city and attracting folks from the Northern states. People get the idea that Jacksonville is like a south florida "retirement" community, when it is not. The "old" people retiring from the North all went further south. Instead, Jacksonville got the Pittsburgh, Philly, NY migration, and then got Lousiana after Katrina.

It's not creepy, it's just becoming more "hoody"

Jax Beach gets so trashy during big events, and now we're seeing drive-by shooting (of a McDonalds of all places). It used to be that kind of crime were confined to certain areas....Northside of Jax and certain areas (around Forrest HS, Paxon, etc...), but it's spreading.

R167,

R150 here. I'm not sure "racial divide" is as mild as it seems. When I was in college in the late 90s--at UF--a girl in my dorm who was from Jax (white, blonde girl) told us that one of our dormmates (a black girl) lived in "the quarters." I had to ask someone what that meant. She ended up joining a sorority of "southern girls" who all talked like that. (I don't remember which one.)

It's not that Jax looks terrible, and Fernie used to be cute: it's that I encountered some weird vibe that I have never encountered before in my life. I have never felt like running away from a hotel in the middle of the night because of the vibe. (And I've been to Venice, Italy multiple times and stayed at the haunted plantation The Myrtles in Louisiana; heck, I stayed at a supposedly haunted B&B in St. Augustine, but it was just straight up charming. No weird vibes.)

Orlando looks trashy, in some areas, and really tacky in others--also provincial. But Jax had like a miasma of sadness, but especially the hotel I was in.

Pretty much all of Sussex County, NJ. Legit hill people who inbreed. Outside of the rich enclave of Sparta and Lake Mohawk the area is filled with Deliverance types.

Another vote for Wisconsin. The rural area north of Madison. A sex addict friend of mine hailed from Lodi and it was discovered that he actually had an incestuous relationship with his mother. You can't make this shit up.

R189 I wanted to sputter and hurl accusations of "Racist !" but you are dead on target. I grew up in Paxson/westside area and the change astounds me.Why do you think St. johns county is exploding? Anyone who can afford it is fleeing Jax!

r193 it's sad, and yes to those who haven't been around the area it sounds awful racist, but it's true. A friend of mine from work moved from South Philly and got a house in Northside (the "nicer" part of Northside, which they started developing and have been developed since), and he (he's black btw) used to joke that "I'll be damned if I moved from South Philly just so I can get shot in Jacksonville"

Its really no different than a lot of growing cities...those who can afford "nicer" areas move out (and this isn't race exclusive) and away from the city as the growing city brings the "poor" crowd (again, not race exclusive, but the stereotype applies unfortunately).

I’d add Dudleytown, CT, to the list of creepy New England locations. Many years ago, I was with a friend who was in the process of scouting locations for a (never made) film on the occult. He told me all about the curse of Dudleytown. I’m a total skeptic, so my initial reaction was “that’s bullshit.” So he took a group of us on a drive one sunny Saturday to show us where that “Dark Entry Road” to Dudleytown was. No one was in the immediate vicinity, so he ignored the “no trespassing” sign and drove up the winding road.

The road is surrounded by thick foliage that gets denser as you go up...and at some point, it became eerie and dead quiet and felt very claustrophobic, like you were being sucked into something. And despite the sunny day, it just felt very ver dark. I admit, I got a bit freaked out. We turned around and got out of there pretty quickly.

This thread will be interesting as we close in on Halloween.

I thought that link was going to be pictures of Dudleytown...

But no...

A Dudleytown photo below....

R89, I usd to live across the street from the Lalaurie house. Never saw any ghosts, did see a lot of buggy drivers stopping to tell their cargo of tourists the story.

😵 Alcatraz Prison is really creepy. Didn't know it when I was there, but it's considered one of the most haunted places on earth.

hardly considered a town, R200

R192, that’s the area I mean! Sauk County feels like West Virginia in places. The vibe starts Southwest of Oshkosh and continues. It kind of skips over urban Madison.

Ed Gein lived in the Adams-Friendship area, which especially weird.

If you want to get technical r201, it's an island.

I've never been to Gettysburg, so I just watched a YT video of a tour. So there are regular houses scattered about the National Park... which must be creepy to live in considering it's supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the U.S., if not THE most haunted. I wonder what kind of stories those residents must have. What a weird place to live in general; imagine giving directions to your house.

That Dudleytown setup sounds like a cult.

I want to say Brandon, FL but it was so long ago I honestly don't remember. Somewhere a good 2+ hours north of Orlando near the Gulf where my (then) BF's parents lived. Creepy as fuck hillbilly town where the houses were on stilts do to being near a river that regularly flooded. One main road with one or two traffic lights, small hotel, town grocery store, gas station church all within a 5 minute walk (think Main St USA.) Everything else was dirt roads leading to houses in the middle of no where, beer cans littered everywhere and actual KKK meeting flyers on telephone poles. Sitting at the dining room table looking at the floor (reminded me of a NJ boardwalk wood planks) I could see 10 feet below us where the washer/dryer/car port area was.

Lots of red flags, then came time to meet the FAM.... lets just say things went south pretty quick, I made the decision to leave and check in at the hotel that was down the road until morning due to not knowing where the fuck I"m at (pre-smart phone days) and images of being hog-tied and dragged behind a pick-up flooded my mind.

I've driven through a few questionable areas in FL & Georgia (got lost) but never get to really experience first hand how fucking backwoods and accurate tv shows/movies get it sometimes.

Wow R206, sounds like you have quite a story to tell and are only just scratching the surface really. Were you not well received by his family? Did they know you were lovers? (or even gay) How did the BF react to your leaving? And his family? Had you any previous clue (s) he was spawned by Hillrods?

Ladysmith BC. It's a small town near where I grew up and it's always creeped me out.

Seconding Hawthorne, Nevada. Definitely the creepiest place I've ever driven through. I drove through mid day on a Friday and there were no other cars on the road and I didn't see a single human being even though there were houses and a few stores and the Mc Donald's. They didn't look abandoned, just empty of life. Everything was eerily quiet, including the ominous lake. Driving around it, I realized there wasn't even one solitary ripple in the water I could see. Perfectly still. The town is also surrounded by a bunch of sand dune type bunkers which added to the post apocalyptic feel of the whole place.

R206 Brandon is south of Orlando, next to Tampa. Anything north of Orlando is hickville.

R200, you are so right. I did the tourist tour of Alcatraz many years ago and it took a couple days to shake off the feelings of dread and anxiety I experienced there. Can't even begin to imagine what it's like at night.

R174, Blythe, California.

Isn't Winter Haven (or is it Winter Garden, FL) supposed to be upper scale?

CT is filled with rundown poor towns filled with sketchy people. The my5 of the Gold Coast is a lie. It’s mostly poor abandoned industrial towns.

r213 not at all. Both are just your typical Central Florida towns.

Interesting that it's the same states mentioned over and over.

Also, no one has mentioned Michigan?

Eureka Springs, AR is the creepiest town I've ever been in. It's like a horror movie. I stayed one night and couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.

Bethesda Maryland. Absolutely soulless.

R217 Is that the place with the ancient haunted hotel? I think I saw a deep cable haunted places show about that.

Rush City, Minnesota.

All I’m gonna say is- avoid it.

Ottawa, Ontario. Pretty but soul-sucking place.

Indiana--one creepy place after another.

Wish some of you would post anecdotes about why you find these places disturbing.

Bethesda? I know my most recent hometown has never been exactly au courant, but Bethesda? [It is spooky in a Stepford kind of way]

A question - why is Gettysburg creepy when other famous battlefields are not? What about the battlefields of WW 1, one would think they'd be lousy with ghosts, but no. So is it mostly mental perception?

There is no such things as a haunted town or ghosts.

R223, I live in Ohio, and there are plenty of creepy places here, but the ones I normally think of are places like Moonville (with its haunted train tunnel), San Toy (a defunct coal-miner's ghost town), and Utopia (where most members of a bizarre religious sect drowned in the Ohio river when the building they were in collapsed into the river).

Xenia is something else. It was struck by an F5 tornado back in 1974, which killed 34 people, injured another 1500, destroyed almost half of the city's buildings, and left 10,000 people homeless. It destroyed 5 schools, 9 churches, and 180 businesses. My city (Cincinnati) still has scores of empty lots from the businesses that were burned down during the Riots of 1968. But the damage is confined to only a few area of the city. With Xenia, the sense of desolation and loss pervades the whole city.

R224 I posted Bethesda. I know it sounds strange their is just a really weird coldness and emptiness to the place, like any niceness you see is superficial. And I find places with no character or community to be sort of creepy, though I know not everyone feels this way.

Please post stories (or impressions or something) with your town names.

Or a little of the town history.

thanks

I’m the poster who mentioned Wisconsin south of Omro and Ripon and near Baraboo. Also Necedah.

A vibe, an emptiness, a stepping back in time feeling. Almost a time slip. Felt it in France once, too, in a small village.

Nothing else.

R225 You'd have to talk with the spirits haunting the battlefield. Maybe they'll share a secret!

I posted Ottawa, Ontario. On the surface, the city is very picturesque with the Rideau Canal, Parliament Buildings, and the Rideau River but the city drains out every day at 4:30 when the bureaucrats leave the small, orderly urban core to drive to their suburban homes in the sprawling outlying communities. I remember walking down city streets on weekends and it felt like a ghost town. - no life, no energy, just empty sidewalks with vacant monolithic buildings, vacant restaurants except for some sporadic "rushed" human activity in the confined touristy food market area.

Also the there's a definite dull government bureaucratic vibe, and the foreign diplomatic community - which is very transient by nature - makes for a cold, insular kind of social scene (if you are not within that group) as they socialize exclusively among themselves.

I think city officials try very hard to bring life to this place, but the citizens keep to themselves giving the place a well-deserved reputation more conducive to raising families than for singles. I will say this - I've travelled all over the world and there is no other place on earth, in my opinion, where you will ever feel as safe as you do in Ottawa. To the point of feeling exceptionally comfortable, safe as secure going out at 11:00 pm for a last minute trip for groceries at a corner store and strolling around, if you wish, on the way back.

But New Orleans, it ain't.

I like Winnipeg but I also find it has a creepy air to it. Same with Edmonton I guess it's something about rough cold Canadian cities. I love both places but they just have an eerie energy to them.

Connecticut is filled with sketchy people.

Sugartown

Yet another vote for Woonsocket, RI. I grew up a few towns over, and that whole pocket- from Woonsocket to Worcester- is just a very dark, unsettling place.

Woonsocket was largely settled by French-Canadian folks who migrated down to work in the mills. Last time I was up there, you could still choose French as your language at an ATM.

One of my parents worked as a shrink in an old Victorian mansion- the town is littered with them. Prior to the mansion becoming a family counseling center, it was a funeral home and the office’s day care center was in the basement... where they used to store and prep the bodies. The gurney/coffin ramp was still in place. It also had a couple of rooms with two way mirrors used for psych observation and even when there was only me and my parent in the building, you felt like you were being watched. I don’t believe in supernatural shit but that building gave me the creeps.

A lot of these small NE towns are left scarred by the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals- just so much abuse and pain and damage that was never dealt with or discussed. There’s several unsolved child murders in that area from the 70s and 80s that still hang in the air too.

That said, Woonsocket had the best Salvation Army I’ve ever seen- four floors in an old factory chock full of antiques for next to nothing.

R236, nice post. Thanks

Centralia is the town Silent Hill was based on.

Much as I'm enjoying this thread, some of you are high-anxiety, easily-spooked, paranoid nut jobs.

I loved eureka springs.

Cairo, Illinois

Cairo is adorable (from the photo). Needs a few cans of paint.

Used to drive through Cairo, IL a lot. Cairo at least has natural light and the Mississippi to make it seem alive. But scarily abandoned. The modern bridge also helps make it less scary than East St Louis.

R236, interesting point you raise about the effects of the Catholic church. This article came out today.

Brooklyn/Killingly CT.

I was visiting a college classmate for the holidays just before Michael Bruce Ross also came home to continue his serial killings.

I didn't find out about Ross until many years later, but at the time I had noted to my parents that I'd felt death around there in that scary ground fog.

PS --

That's just a little west of Woonsocket to Worchester

Had to research Michael Bruce Ross, r245.

R245 I know someone who as a very young woman, lived in an apartment on his parents' property. One night, someone came violently banging at her door, trying to open it and she pretended to call out to her boyfriend, even though he wasn't there. The banging stopped. The sister of one of her high school friends was murdered by him.

R195 The death of Dudleytown, a place that's sitting on a fault line and might have some magnetic weirdness tied to that, was likely the result of beer made from moldy grain consumed by the village and everyone went mad from it. But there were different Dudley's that settled in CT. The legend was claimed to be based on some curse tied to the descendants of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and his father, beheaded for treason against the King. But Dudleytown wasn't named after those particular Dudley descendants that were among settlers of CT though, so the legend is kind of a murky amalgamation of stories tied to multiple local families with the surname.

My uncle did get into that ghost chaser stuff for a while and even though he's pretty much the most fearless man I know, he claims he spent the most terrifying night of his life camping out there alone. He said the stillness is almost like experiencing a time warp and then, there would be one lone blade of grass moving in a grove and nothing else. Then, the audibly recognizable sound of whispering in between bouts of complete and total silence. It's definitely a weird place but that could have something to do with it being over a fault line. CT is also full of rock, which is radioactive and that could have something to do with altered sensations, as well.

It's even scarier than that, R214. CT is full of very, wealthy people who CHOOSE to live like paupers. You're thinking about the regions where lots of public services are offered for pretty much entire quadrants of the State and places also classified as "Sanctuary" regions, offering services to immigrants arriving from multiple regions across the USA, as well.

You'll find lots of people who are thrifty to the point of eerie, still living like settlers in CT, to only later find out following their death that their estate was worth over $250 million. All while they were counting spaghetti strands out in their pantry. I have witnessed this myself too many times for it to not be something typical of the state. For this reason and many others, I imagine CT is a really weird place. This is in addition to the multiple religious villages and isolated compounds. It's "The land of steady habits" as in, "Tuck Everlasting" type of "steady habits".

"Her death is “imminent,” PEOPLE confirms."

Arethaville, one of the creepier towns.

Thanks, R248, for the insight on Dudleytown. It really did feel like time stood still during my brief drive through. Hats off to your uncle for spending the night in that place! And your theory about its location along the fault line having something to do to the weird vibes there is one I should research.

R251 I'm not correct in stating it's exactly on it, it sort of runs down the center but more West-leaning side the State. But everything everyone has said here about CT is true, including the pockets of poverty vs. the wealth but the weird thing is that you're not always sure which is which. There are some definite cultural quirks to the State that stand out compared to other ones, even other New England States.

Um...wrong thread, sorry.

No worries, R249. I've done it many times.

Beverly Hills. It's crawling with creatures with gross monster lips and scary faces that can't move.

I also loved Eureka Springs. Go figure.

There are a lot of creepy, almost abandoned towns in Mississippi. Towns that "never were" are just gross, but the ones that used to be thriving, vibrant towns are somehow unsettling. There are several in the Delta that pretty much dried up when the train lines stopped coming through, and many industries moved.

Many of them like Greenwood and Clarksdale have experienced a little bit of renewal, with museums, restaurants and clubs....but they are usually in a concentrated area and once you are away from those areas...creepy.

Vicksburg is the worst though. Some beautiful antebellum mansions, but for the most part, it's really depressing and ominous, especially downtown.

On the other hand, Natchez is kind of cool to visit, and there's a lot happening downtown now...lots of people relocated there post-Katrina.

Well, now, R250, she DOES live in Detroit, after all. Which is a definite contender for the title of "America's Scariest Big City" . . .

Has anyone been to East ST Louis? I always wonder if it's actually as scary as everyone says.

Gettysburg is creepy As Hell. There's a shroud of death and sadness that's oppressive.

R5 the tourist Market "City Market" your referring to was not where slaves were sold, that was done in another building which is still in existence.

I spent a couple years living in the southern MA/northern RI area and yeah, that whole area is depressing and full of weirdos. I can't even pick one worst town...they're all just awful. And if you weren't from the area you would be acutely aware of it at all times. You'd think being so close to Boston, the people would be a little more worldly, but no. An outsider was a novelty and treated with suspicion. In retrospect I understand it, because who in their right mind would move by choice to any of those shitholes?).

I always saw Palm Springs as a resort paradise.

But not many new buildings have been built there in 30 years or more and the people are all retired seniors. The complete absence of youth or middle-aged people, especially in the gay spots, combined with the antique buildings, could qualify as creepy.

But then I visited during The Great Recession. Unemployment was something like 11 percent in CA and half the shops in Palm Springs were BOARDED UP.

That got REALLY fucking creepy.

Their indoor shopping mall was almost completely vacant of tenants, save for one Radio Shack and one snack bar in the food court. Everything else was chained up and signed over: "Coming Soon!" "For Lease!"

And NO customers in the mall, of course. That was just depressing.

I imagine the economy has picked up and it's mostly an oasis to me. But I haven't seen it since about 2010.

I was in Palm Springs in 2016, R262, and the touristy downtown was bustling and the town seemed smugly prosperous and attractive.

And now that you've mentioned that it's a town without young people, I want to retire there.

R121 needs to stop taking the word of schizophrenics.

Plenty of rich people in Greenwich, Darien and Westport CT

I'm another one who thought Eureka Springs was charming. If you're going stay at The Crescent Hotel which is supposedly haunted. My bf and I heard someone/something whistling under our bed. Bf saw a woman in white standing on the balcony in the rain. We found out later that balcony is haunted by the ghost of a nurse.

I think he meant those in The Quiet Corner, r265

You're making me extremely u comfortable R249.

R262 Palm Springs is doing great. Economy there is good, lots of boutique hotels drawing young people in for weekend visits (Just look up the Saguaro Hotel on Instagram, every millennial out there has gone there just to take pics of themselves of the colorful, funky place).

R155, have you been to Venice, CA lately? It's completely upscale and overpriced and a wealthy white enclave now. Back in the 90s it was run down and had a wonderful, creepy vibe and an underlying sense of danger (especially after dark). Now the place is so whitewashed and safe, filled with rich Silicon Beach kids and movie stars who own places there, tearing down bungalows to build multi-million dollar McMansions on postal stamp sized lots. Tons of good restaurants and haughty vegan places.

Maybe because Datalounge is for English speakers and no English territory was a WWI battlefield, r225?

Duh.

Go to a French, Russian, Turkish or German forum to ask which of their towns are creepy.

Young people touring through Palm Springs are gone on the weekdays, never the same people, and still a tiny fraction of the tourists who come through, who all SKEW OLDER.

I used to spend most of January in Palm Springs in my 20s and it was fucking depressing. There were no hangouts or hookups with people under 65 years old 90% of the time. Thank God I had work on my plate and brought colleagues my own age.

And did I mention the indoor mall with only 2 shops open kept its wings unlit?

CREEPY.

I hope they've done something with that sad, spooky mall.

So, is anyone going to mention Salem, Massachusetts?

Roswell, New Mexico?

Truckee, California?

Tuskegee, Alabama?

Johnson County, Wyoming?

Survival Town, Nevada?

Here are some very creepy pics of towns ruined by disasters:

Castle Rock is being filmed in Orange, Massachusetts, Lancaster, Massachusetts and Moundsville, West Virginia.

[quote] have you been to Venice, CA lately? It's completely upscale and overpriced and a wealthy white enclave now. Back in the 90s it was run down and had a wonderful, creepy vibe and an underlying sense of danger (especially after dark). Now the place is so whitewashed and safe, filled with rich Silicon Beach kids and movie stars who own places there, tearing down bungalows to build multi-million dollar McMansions on postal stamp sized lots. Tons of good restaurants and haughty vegan places.

I've been there lately. The beach was full of homeless people, the odor of MJ smoke is everywhere and there were still plenty of wacked out druggies and crazy people on the grubby boardwalk. Real estate may be expensive but it has hardly turned into Disneyland.

A Nightmare on Elm Street has a scene filmed in Venice,California.

But it was the nicest part of town— the canal park.

Every time I’ve seen it, it was a shithole. But loud, crowded and full of tourists. So not really “creepy.”

Multi million dollar housing in Venice with homeless sleeping in the gutters and shitting in the sidewalks.

A Jewish heaven

The people who live in those multi-million dollar homes on the canals in Venice were complaining a few years ago about the homeless jumping their gates and shitting in their yard.

This had a good DL run:

Connecticut is weird.

Inspired by the "Dark Shadows" thread, ("The Griswold Inn" was used as a location), let's discuss the general "lost in time" weirdness of Connecticut.

Milpitas, California, where the River's Edge murder and aftermath played out.

Haven't been to Venice, CA, in a few years, but the last time I was there a man was struck by lightning and killed on the beach where I was. So creepy.

R230 Can you elaborate on "feelings of time slip"? I used to visit a friend's ski cabin up in/near Baraboo, and I did find it a different type of remote place, and a bit creepy. The cabin was an old seventies A-Frame with a very nostalgic decor, which added to the unusual mood. Would love to read any more details you could think of.

Salman Rushdie wrote an essay about Adelaide about this very thing

[italic] Every Town Is A Creepy Town !

I've been to Survival Town, and it was fascinating, R272. As I occasionally do on DL, I like to remind everyone that the Nevada Nuclear Security Site (NNSS) NW of Vegas offers free tours monthly that are frankly, creepy, sobering, and mind blowing. It's about seeing the effects of nuclear tests up close, and touching real and replica hardware, such as the small nuke at Operation Icecap on Yucca Flat, which would fit in your car trunk.

R285, thanks for the reminder. First I have heard of it.

Or, R285, you could watch "The Hills Have Eyes, Parts I & II."

Hello, R282,

R230 here. We were driving back to our rental in a very small French village (after taking a morning road trip to a larger village) when road construction and a detour confused us and we ended up in another small village. We were lost, and got our of the car to take photos and check the map. I walked into the heart of the one-street village that was totally silent. There was nothing that said 21st century in sight. The photos I took all have a foggy, lonely look to them. It was probably only the time of day - early afternoon - that made everything seem so still. It just felt old, and, of course it was.

At the time, I didn’t know anything about time slips. But when I read about them (Google Liverpool and Bold Street for more info), I felt this might have been one.

Aberfan

I spent seevral days in Greenwood MS--very odd, unsettling town. Defineitely had a pre-Civil Rights vibe. Meridian and Philadelphia are other odd,creepy towns (both sizable). You easily get the feeling of being watched as an outsider in these placess and other people who've visited tehm for business have said the same thing.

Vicksburg, MS has a creepy haunted vibe I was on a house tour and was told by the tour leader that sometimes the ghosts will show up on the tour. One did when I took a picture of a ladies vanity mirror in a bedroom something appeared in the reflection of the mirror that I know was not in the bedroom.

R289's Aberfan. One of the rare times the Queen has been seen crying in public.

Mastic, Long Island. Home of one of the most depressing Native American Reservations imaginable, and not much else. Whole place feels forgotten, and its neighboring town of Shirley is not much better. There's a thin veneer of "family friendly," but it always feels like a facade to me.

Austin, Texas is dilapidated.

Seriously.

I live and work in this creepy town every summer.

What do you do there, R295? Why just summer?

R291, can you post the photo you mentioned?

Xenia, Ohio, for sure. Dayton is incredibly creepy and it is the overdose capital of the U.S. Circleville, Ohio is known for their pumpkin festival but my god it is eerie.

I know this is about towns that feel creepy, but sometimes you don’t sense it. It is more about things that happen there.

Xenia is a good example. Was it creepy/malevolent in the first place and it attracted the addicts or did the addicts’ behavior cause the creepiness?

Years ago, my parents moved to a rural area. I disliked it from the onset, but little did I know what was going to happen. Paranormal stuff, animal abuse, terrible bullying, and I could go on. It culminated with a situation that was genuinely dangerous and could have ruined my life or worse. I finally got out of there and when I moved, it was like the universe righted itself . I can still remember the feeling like I was finally free.

So, are there places that just naturally attract creepiness or are all places neutral until an individual or group make it creepy by their acts?

R225, I mentioned the creepiness of Gettysburg but I also felt the same creepiness in Dachau. It was more than creepy, there is evil in the air. Also, there is a plain northwest of Athens, Greece I drove through on the way to Delphi. I got a sense that some awful things happened there. I didn't mention it to my Greek friends who were in the car, and I never did any research about what might have been happened there. The Ann Frank House, especially her room, is haunted.

Delphi, on the other hand, is the opposite of creepy. It has incredible energy. I felt a similar energy in the Coliseum in Rome. I teared up when I entered the place.

Most college towns have a good vibe, as the population is largely made up of hopeful young students and people with stable university jobs. The exception to that is Chico, California, home of Chico State, which has long been known as a party school. I swear to God every young person there spends their daylight hours being hung over, and every time I set foot there I see more methheads.

Now, can someone be a doll and write up Happy Valley, PA, home of the notorious sports-obsessed party school Penn State? So many weird stories have come out of there that sometimes I wonder if there's a Hellmouth under the place.

Journalist Sarai Ribicoff.

Niece of former Sen. Abraham Ribicoff.

Murdered in Venice, Cal. in the Eighties.

Major story at the time.

"Years ago, my parents moved to a rural area. I disliked it from the onset, but little did I know what was going to happen. Paranormal stuff, animal abuse, terrible bullying, and I could go on. It culminated with a situation that was genuinely dangerous and could have ruined my life or worse. I finally got out of there and when I moved, it was like the universe righted itself . I can still remember the feeling like I was finally free."

Could you elaborate on this, R298. I'm fascinated.

I would also like to hear about the culminating situation.

Sierra Vista Arizona. There's a military base there which probably accounts for the huge number of pro-military slogans displayed everywhere, but there's an underlying sense of sullen meanness that made me want out sooner than planned.

Tucson I liked, I didn't get that feeling there at all.

Las Vegas, New Mexico. So depressing after visiting Sante Fe

r305 That's where they filmed "Longmire." It made me kind of curious to go check it out. Why is it depressing?

Chagrin Falls, Ohio. It has the feeling of a Twilight Zone episode where a couple goes out for a ride in the country.

R306,we stopped on the way home to Denver to get a drink/use the bathroom.

The little strip has no charm, the McDonalds was closed and everyone looks like their on meth (we stopped at Walgreens).

Gettysburg and the battlefields on a still, warm summer afternoon is as another poster said, very melancholy. I can't even image what it would be like at night. We went there many times and the odd "off" feeling of the place was always present.

I live in Palm Springs. Just moved here from Phoenix last April. Palm Springs itself is not creepy or weird to me, but the desert surrounding it is very creepy. Take a drive at night though the desert from Phoenix to Palm Springs, and you see vast emptiness. Mountains and ranges that maybe have never had a human place feet on in spots. In the darkness, you may see a flicker of a light off in the desert. Then it disappears. I went camping way out in one of the areas that the tourists avoid, as they usually go to Joshua Tree. I camped way back in the hills below a small mountain range. I went by myself. I will NEVER do that again. Scared the living shit out of me.

R309, what was it specifically that frightened you?

And what do you think the lights were ?

R309, are you used to camping alone?

To second R310, what scared you?

Not R309 but I had a similar experience alone in the desert at night. It’s so cold and dark, no lights anywhere and the temperature drops drastically.. And all sorts of nocturnal creatures come out at night. I was petrified.

R312, the same desert? (Outside Palm Springs?)

What creatures?

People!!! Please provide details.

R313 I don’t recall exactly which desert it was, I think it was outside Tuscon AZ. I kept hearing little rustlings and noises outside my tent and imagining snakes and giant spiders, or maybe an axe murderer coming for me. It was totally black so I couldn’t see a thing, only hear. The desert comes alive at night because so many of the creatures are nocturnal to avoid the blazing sun and heat during the day. I’ve never been so scared. It was a long night.

R309 here. I usually do not camp alone. Only three times. The third time was the last time. Google Interstate 10 and Red Cloud Mine Road. Follow all the way till it ends in southerly direction in a canyon wash. That's where I was. The sounds scared me. Rocks falling from the hills above, not big or overly loud but distinctly rocks tumbling down a slope.

I have camped with friends in Rodgers Canyon, in the Superstition Wilderness just outside Phoenix. That place has a vibe too. Cliff dwellings you can go up into. Not many people make it back there.

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

Hanging Rock

That's weird (R200/211) a few years ago I travelled across America by myself (as a 31 year old British woman). I went round alcatraz alonw and was surprised at the time by how unspooked I felt by it - the only thing that I was aware of bothering me was the smell of the place, in fact I found it a bit of a disappointment in a way.

But, it is only looking back now that I realise that I also did feel a certain fear and vulnerability that I didn't, at the time, connect with the place itself. For the first time (about a week into my trip) I felt slightly unsafe being by myself, in the absence of any obvious reason to be so. I had previously felt a bit unsafe because I got off the tram early and ended up in the tenderloin district I had been warned against, but the reason for that feeling was obvious. But at Alcatraz I did feel a sudden need to be part of one of the groups of friends and family and briefly considered trying to join in with one. Who knows, maybe that was because of the island itself.

To be honest I probably was quite vulnerable as a young woman travelling across the country by myself, and it was a strange feeling not knowing anyone on the whole continent if I had needed help, but I'm glad I did it when I did it.

Anywhere in Tasmania.

Why do people camp ALONE in the middle of nowhere? Then post they were scared shitless. duh.

[quote] I lived in the Berkshires for a couple years and always found that area to have a very haunted feel. Difficult to put into words, but it seemed like there was a layer of evil just under the surface of everything.

You need to be more generously minded towards our lesbian sisters in Northampton!

Mendicino CA. aka Salems Lot

Herkimer NY

Goose Bay, Labrador. Isolated. Wilderness. Harsh weather. People keep to themselves. Terrible loneliness. Sense of despair.

Modesto, CA owns this thread.

Why, r326?

Downtown Peterborough, ON

Anywhere in Saskatchewan.

Santa Cruz . All them damned vampires.

I'm in Madison Wisconsin, never knew so much creepy was all around me. I gotta take a drive.

Chagrin Falls is very quaint. For creepy, try Harper's Ferry--ghosts everwhere.

Interesting thread, keep the names coming.

Niland, California. Just a lifeless place full of resigned, sullen people.

Alert, Nunavut

I used to live in Venice Beach in the 1980s. Immediately after sunset Venice turned into a scary ghost town, hence the nickname for an old neighborhood in Venice.

California rednecks can rival the worst of the Southern states. Lots of Brad Pitt as Early in Kalifornia types....they barely seem human. A creepy place that will always stick with me is Carabelle Florida. In Appalachicola. One time I went with some friends to a buddy's beach house. The whole town was deserted, like a ghost town, and reeked with despair, poverty and bad vibes. When we got there I discovered that there were NO LOCKS on any of the doors to this beach house, which turned out to be an old shack made of aluminum, I kid you not. Later that night, on the first night we were there, we were sitting in the living room hanging out and and the door opened and a gang of guys with switchblades mosied on in, demanding money and acting creepily congenial as they asked for it. That vibe that they're so calm because they're going to slit your throat before you can call the cops. We threw some money at them and they mercifully left. I stayed one more night while I arranged for another friend who lived in Tallahassee to come get me the hell out of there.

Lake Havasu, AZ

California is full of rednecks who relocated from elsewhere--Texas, OK, Arknasas, Louisiana, various parts of the Midwest. Should not surprise anyone with a little knowledge of history.

EVERYONE from California relocated from elsewhere. Anyone with a tiny knowledge of history would not be surprised about that. The thing is, you'd think that those redneck genes would have been watered down sometime through the years, as California is a progressive,enlightened state in general.

Madison, Wis? Really, R331?

I’m to imagine what neighborhood you are in. I’ve lived Downtown, Near South, mid-South, Monroe Dudgeon and West Town and never felt creeped out.

Wallace, Idaho is one of the weirdest towns I've ever been to. I spent the night there once and I wouldn't say I was creeped out per se, but it's seen better days and the entire downtown area is mostly vacant, save a few shops. I was shocked to see a bit of nightlife at a bar across the street from my hotel (which was adjacent to an ex-brothel turned museum). I went into an antique store there which had a dark, dank basement that had some random items arranged along the walls; I remember feeling extremely unnerved and having to go back upstairs because I felt so uncomfortable down there. I don't know how else to describe it except that it felt haunted. There is lots of mining history in that town and region. It's located in between two steep hillsides so it doesn't get much sunlight either. Lana Turner was from there. I visited her childhood home, which is basically a rundown shack today. Rather depressing.

Bennington, Vermont is also really weird. Aside from the college and a few nice old-money houses, it's another town that's seen better days and appears to be in a bubble. The history of people going missing from that area in the Green Mountains also adds to the creep factor, though I find the region ominous in and of itself. There is a weird presence to the landscape that I can't really articulate.

I Lived in Western Mass for a decade - as well as up in Maine for 4 years. There are a lot of dark, unsettling areas in New England. RI and CT have a tired, claustrophobic feeling. But there is something about VT that really freaked me out, I would have sudden panic attacks trying to day tourist up there. In all honesty - like several posters in this thread have mentioned the natural topography and granite composition combined with running water and fault lines can make for strange electromagnetic fields that would be invisible to the eye but your senses would feel it. Aside from New England the absolute worst place I have ever been, in which I felt unsettled the entire time was Winona, Minnesota. There is something just horrible about the vibe of that place. The town is named after a young Indian girl who supposedly suicided. The creepy factor goes back in time too - google up the Documentary Wisconsin Death Trip - which catalogs strange deaths in the area going back into the late 1800s.

r8's post I creepy, look at how it is signed. S/he posted just a couple months before the fire. I hope they are safe.

"r7, more a feeling I've gotten than anything concrete. I've driven through Lordsburg, on I-10, 6 times. On one visit, I stopped for gas and as soon as I opened my car door a violent gust from a blue sky jerked the door out of my hand, injuring my wrist. On another occasion, I visited a dying gas station/grocery where a skeletal man and his wife sat behind the counter, counting pennies. When I asked to use the restroom after buying my gas, they motioned me to a swinging saloon type door at the back of the store, behind which was a single over-flowing commode. On another occasion, I stayed at a small motel and when I asked about my cat being allowed in the room, he said that it would be too dangerous for it to stay in my van as there were "things" that would try to get at it. Perhaps it's the desert, [R7]; that feeling of having no place to hide from the "things" that might try to get at me. But I will not take that route again.

—safely living in Paradise, CA"

I’m surprised so few people have mentioned various parts of LA. I’ve seen Venice mentioned, which I don’t really get. Yes, the beach is scuzzy, lots of druggies and tourists etc, but Abbot Kinney is basically Beverly Hills for hippies, all expensive restaurants and chic boutiques. The canals have a cool, distinctly Cali vibe. Never got a negative feeling there.

Beachwood Canyon/Hollywoodland is another matter entirely. Pre Beverly Hills/pre Hollywood Hills as we know them today, this is where the Hollywood elite built their Mediterranean and Spanish villas. Many still stand today, and are gorgeous and huge but also somewhat decrepit and have a “removed from time” vibe. Because that part of Hollywood has gotten rough, there’s a weird excess/wealth of days past meets poverty of today vibe. I almost rented a 3,000 sq foot Tudor in Beachwood, built in the 20’s and apparently once home to Humphrey Bogart. The house had the most evil, malevolent feeling I’ve ever encountered. It was three stories and the entryway was on the top floor, with master bedroom. Then you descended a grand staircase to the living room and kitchen, with a ground floor beneath that. From the top, it felt like you were standing over a hellmouth. Something horrible happened there and you could feel it. Even the agent showing the house couldn’t wait to leave. My agent, who seems perfectly normal and not superstitious, told me “there’s something really wrong with that place and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I let you rent it.” I got out of there as fast as I could, but I’ll never forget seeing the back of the door in one of the smaller bedrooms - it was covered in claw marks. They were high up, like they’d been scratched into the door by a person. It made me so uneasy my eyes began to water and run.

Several month later, did happen to run into another agent who showed me a different house, and I brought up that particular home. He said a family leader it for a year and left after four months. They broke the lease and decided they were better off paying the rent but living elsewhere. Clearly they must have had a terrible experience to be ok with losing so much $$.

I still get creeped out going to Beachwood after that. I don’t think I could ever live there. The whole neighborhood has an air of sadness and despair. You can tell a lot of bad things happened there, a lot of broken dreams.

A family leased it for a year***

When you're driving from Seoul to the DMZ you can see empty high-rise apartments along the North Korean side. They built them to look like a prosperous city but they are completely empty. It is far creepier than the DMZ itself.

The run-down neighborhoods in Kyoto and Osaka controlled by the yakuza and home to the outcaste burakumin are creepy as well.

Check out this site.

Sorry, fixed link above.

[quote]California is full of rednecks who relocated from elsewhere--Texas, OK, Arknasas, Louisiana, various parts of the Midwest. Should not surprise anyone with a little knowledge of history.

Fortunately a lot them are moving back (to places like Nevada, Arizona, and Texas) these days.

Barstow, California, was the only place I've ever been where I left my suitcase in the car rather than go into the motel parking lot. I was on a long road trip, it was late, I booked a freeway exit motel room on my smartphone rather than fall asleep at the wheel. I got to the motel, I checked in, and ran to my room instead of getting my suitcase out of the car for reasons I still don't understand, and slept in my clothes with the windows shut even though it was hot and the air conditioning was very loud. I got my suitcase out in the morning and brushed my teeth and changed clothes then. No, my car wasn't disturbed, and there were no police sirens during the night.

I was rather surprised, my mother had lived in Barstow as a young woman just out of college, and had always said how much she'd enjoyed her time there. But I guess that was before the California desert towns got as creepy as they are now.

Perris, California creepy

There are no such things as ghosts, OP. All your bad, creepy feelings are due to reality.

Incredible story, R289.

This is a fascinating thread.

Paris, Texas Texarkana West Virginia

R345, was that house on Rodgerton Drive by any chance? There are a few creepy, decaying old mansions on that street. Looking at the interiors of one of them on Hotpads and it looks like a Spanish version of Dracula's castle.

Ok, I think I found the house and it is on Rodgerton Drive. Known as the "Bogart House," but it's English style not Spanish like some of the ones I've seen. The interiors look fresh and white, but the rent is suspiciously cheap for the area.

Sorry r341, I didn't mean Madison was creepy. People kept mentioning towns in southern Wisconsin that were creepy, and I thought, wow I gotta get out more. It might be kinda fun now to visit them and see if I get the same feeling.

Okay, I put "Bogart's house Rogerton Drive" into Bing, and this is what came up.

Is this the "hellmouth" house, R345? Because yeah, it looks kinda creepy.

https://legaciesofla.com/6310-rodgerton-drive/

Link to the Bogart house, on closer inspection in the photos there are claw marks on one of the bathroom doors! Holy shit and the bathroom sinks are rotted too.

Link doesn't work, R361, and you need to post links in the box provided for that purpose anyway.

Is that the house at R360?

Sorry, hope this works. Includes photos of the scratch marks all over the bathroom door.

Funny, if you look at that house above on Google Earth, you can't see much behind the fence, but there seems to be some kind of official-looking notice attached to the gate handle.

Hmmm...."Dear Exorcist, please use the service entrance today to avoid slipping on the ectoplasm in the entry hall"?

r363 - I love that house. The scratch marks on the bathroom door are probably from a dog being locked in there.

Bump

R345 here. That’s the house! I thought it looked charming and fairytale-ish in photos. In person it’s a totally different story. Very dark, surrounded by trees and overgrown vines, horrible energy as described above. I actually found out it was rented by a rock singer in the early 90’s and nearly burned down. The fire almost killed him and his brother. The owner has wiped all traces of the fire, rebuilt where necessary and now claims there was never a fire. However multiple agents I spoke with said otherwise and said the fire was common knowledge. I was confused so messaged the singer on Facebook. I didn’t expect him to respond, but sure enough he did. Confirmed the fire and said he absolutely didn’t recommend I rent the place. Stopped responding after that initial message.

I do know they absolutely can’t keep the place rented. It comes up for rent every six to eight months or so. Very peculiar for a home in this area.

Some of the small towns in northern New Mexico are creepy.

Cuervo New México is creepy as hell. A ghost town my friend and I drove past and stopped in on a cross country trip from LA to NYC in 2007. We went in all the abandoned houses and the abandoned church and took pictures. The possible rapist/murderer trophies (as seen in the linked video from 2016) were not there when we stopped by.

I can't judge places as creepy when it comes to paranormal. Because I discovered from the time I was a little kid, that places that others feel are creepy or haunted, like battlefields, cemeteries, old houses and hospitals, etc... do not creep me out. In fact, I am usually filled with a sense of peace and contentment in these locations, almost like you feel when you are visiting with people you haven't seen in awhile. I can't explain it.

But, I can't stand those, "fake" haunted house attractions at Halloween.

I don't find those places to be automatically scary either R370, especially cemeteries, which are usually pretty and peaceful. But I can say I've been places before where I've been caught off guard by legitimately creepy "energy." I hate to use that word because it is so new-agey and cliched, but it's the only way I know how to describe it. There are places I've visited that felt haunted for no apparent/tangible reason.

Luxembourg

Pretty much anyplace on the Mississippi between Cape Girardeau and Memphis.

R373 are the towns scary and creepy?

They're spooky, but without being ooky.

Brattleboro, VT has a dark, oppressive, depressive, insular vibe. I don't understand why people migrate there.

Disneyworld is a creepy town, with all those people running around in costumes?

R376, I spent the night in Brattleboro once a few years ago, and honestly found Bennington to be a lot creepier (I'm the poster who brought it up earlier in the thread). Brattleboro seemed like an upper-class hippie haven, similar to some towns in Oregon, where I'm from—sort of reminded me of Ashland, OR. I can see it being "insular," but that goes for most small towns. I did think the layout of the town was a bit odd.

With all these responses to former battlefields and prisons as feeling creepy and full of dread, I’m continually surprised that I’ve still never heard of any of the former Nazi concentration camps being haunted. With all the sorrow and terror those places engendered, literally for years, you’d think there’d be some vibe like that. But nothing.

There were even horrible Civil War concentration camps, Andersonville for one, but nobody visits those to report on them.

A general feeling one finds in the U.S. is one of neglect and decay, somewhat glossed over in many urban settings, but the underlying malaise persists. Though many try to deny it, we are a country long past its prime. Even the slogan, Make America Great Again, seems more a desperate attempt at denial.

No wonder so many posters here connect to it.

r378, SE Portland has always reminded me of Vermont, it has a similar vibe to it.

r345, r367 Is this the house? It is very creepy looking and apparently was one of the first homes built in hollywoodland. Is it still owned by Dean Torrance of Jan and Dean?

Also, someone in the comments said this...

"Family legend is that my Great Grandfather, John Kennedy Bryan, built this house. Or had it built? I’m not really sure. My grandfather does list this as his address when he was in the US Navy in the 1920s, though I do not believe he every lived here himself. Probably it was his best permanent address for him, with his father living there at that time.

My Aunt says JK Bryan rented it to Humphrey Bogart. Perhaps in the early 1930s. The tale is that Bogart moved out in the middle of the night, stiffing him on some rent. All he left my G Grandfather were some smelly socks."

Perhaps it was haunted even when Bogart lived there...

r345 Claw marks on this door too. Made by a dog? or something else?

Several years ago I was driving from Poughkeepsie, NY to New Milford, CT and traveled through Beekman and Wingdale. There was "something" very eerie as I was driving between and through these two towns. I saw very little traffic along the way which was odd since it was a Saturday afternoon. I couldn't wait to pass through this area and looked forward to reaching New Milford. The other odd thing was my ancestors lived in this part of New York during the 1700s and early 1800s. Perhaps I was being haunted? I've never felt this out of place before. Just this stretch of road.

Lake Elsinore, California it was once a vacation area for segregated Hollywood actors, it is just creepy and depressing now.

The Bogart house looks so charming and inviting from the outside, with the stairs accented by the ivy and everything. Inside, even from the photos, I am feeling a sense of dread. The room with the fireplace, especially, and the door leading out from the kitchen. I actually got goosebumps from looking at those photos.

R367 a webpage about the house stated that the owner had sued the singer over the fire. Maybe that's partly why he doesn't want to talk about it? I will find the site if I can.

I assume the marks on the door are made by a dog, given that they go up only halfway. However, I'm puzzled as to why the door wasn't repaired or replaced in a photograph meant to advertise the house for rent!

R386 if possible can you explain that feeling a bit more? I'm trying to see why people are sensing that the house is off. Is it the light, or the dimensions, or what?

OP, regarding the Berkshire, supposedly Great Barrington Mass has one of the highest suicide rates in the US. R140, you must have been lost as there is a lot of homes and businesses on the roads from Poughkeepsie to New Milford. It's also a very affluent area. You would have been driving through Millbrook, and Pawling NY and Kent, and Sherman CT. all of which are beautiful.

Ooooh 388 that is creepy, suicidal souls rising cold in the dark night air. The dude who thought the town was creepy had a sixth sense alive that night.

"I'm trying to see why people are sensing that the house is off. Is it the light, or the dimensions, or what? "

Mainly we think the house is off because we were told so before we saw the pictures.

But if the pictures look off, it's partly because the house it that funeral cement gray, partly because it's sort of sunken into a pit (the entrance seems to be level with the 3rd floor, and at least in my case, it's because the place is made in the same style as the creepy cottage complex from "Mulholland Drive". It looks JUST like that place, right?

Of course that doesn't explain why the guy who was actually there felt like there was a Hellmouth around.

It also reminds me of 10050 Cielo Drive. The fairytale bungalow thing is definitely interesting but creepy in itself.

R387....I think the dimensions are "off" in some way, in both the structure of the house and also its architectural design elements. There is also some kind of element of decay that is evident in the way the light hits and in the overall mood of the place.

I wouldn't want to show up in any of those towns.

Bump

R392, an eldritch design full of non-Euclidean angles and imparting a nameless, bottomless dread? Perhaps it is the gateway to the nightmare city of R'lyeh, where dead Cthulhu waits, dreaming.

Many desert towns are like this.

Windsor, Ontario.

R359, try the Sauk County area, also Necedah and the Adams-Friendship area.

Let us know what you think.

Here’s exactly what I mean:

There are a number of towns where people go so they can be left alone. Are there many such towns with a lot of gays?

There have been a few towns in upstate NY that are like little hillbilly enclaves. The people are either silent or very loud. They never seem to smile. I find those places very creepy.

Give me the city with all the cracked-out homeless any day.

R401 There are a lot of towns like that in the desert southwest.

Bump! Just caught up on this thread.

A ghost town in Spain I walked through that was killed by a recession. Not a charming medieval local either but a 1990s housing estate.

When I was a kid my family drove across Canada on a road trip one summer. I remember how creepy all of the tiny towns in Saskatchewan seemed. They were nearly abandoned and I could just imagine what they looked like in the winter. We barely stopped in any of them unless we needed a bathroom break or gas but I wish we had. I remember a town called Pense and one called Mozart. Mozart has a population of just over 50 now.

R8's post was kind of creepy. He said he was happily living in Paradise Ca. I was surprised until I read the date. R8 are you still alive and kicking. I live in Chico

Certain places in South London

Courchevel ski resort in France. Vibe of cynical or deluded people ignoring their extremely filthy sources of wealth.

Pennywise....

Scariest and creepiest one ever! Stay away...

San Francisco. I have nightmares about driving in that city.

Methuen, Mass. Gothic-feeling town surrounding the decrepit mill city of Lawrence. Hints of a grand past surrounded by suburban bland.