A Collection of Creepy Old Photos

[Archaic]

Hi everybody.

Since this is the month of Halloween, I thought you might enjoy seeing a collection of oddly creepy old photographs.

Don't worry, there's nothing gory; the scenes are merely unusual and/or highly ambiguous, so appeal to the imagination.

These photos are from the personal collection of author Ransom Riggs and are being used to illustrate his new book, 'Miss Paradine's Home For Peculiar Children'.

I'm curious to hear which ones you like the best, which you perhaps find scary or disturbing, etc., and why.

Creepy Photos: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ransom...9.html#s405658

Enjoy!
Archaic

PS: Not responsible for nightmares.

[Celesta]

Some of these are pretty disturbing, Archie. I especially don't like the one with the string in the kid's mouth. All of them are pretty strange. Thanks a lot for posting this.

[Rubyretro]

Um..thank you, Bunny. I enjoyed the pics...don't know if my kids will..I will certainly recommend this for my friends and their kids...I hope everyone concerned will forgive me.

[Carol]

Hi Archaic!
Thanks for the link to the creepy photos!

The one that has disturbed me most is the one of the little girl with the paper bag and the shadow of what appears to be a large man standing nearby. That really has given me the creeps! It suggests to me a would-be child molester who has just given the little girl a bag full of sweets in the hope of luring her away. She seems to be looking up at the shadow in pleased surprise.

Love
Carol

[Carol]

Me again, Archaic!
The penny has just dropped - you're interested in which pictures we find particularly disturbing for psychological reasons!
Love
Carol xxx

P.S. I think you'll have a job on your hands trying to 'psycho' Celeste's most disturbing pic. I think mine is fairly obvious!

[Celesta]

Me again, Archaic!
The penny has just dropped - you're interested in which pictures we find particularly disturbing for psychological reasons!
Love
Carol xxx

P.S. I think you'll have a job on your hands trying to 'psycho' Celeste's most disturbing pic. I think mine is fairly obvious!

Carol, for one thing the children's heads are done up as clowns. I don't like clowns. In fact, until someone posted a thread in which clowns were discussed, I had no idea how many people don't like them! Also, the head with the ribbon in it's mouth makes me think of a balloon. I gave me a frisson.

[Archaic]

Optogram?

Hi Celesta, Carol, and Ruby, thanks for your replies. I'm just catching up with the thread.

When I first saw the pics, I too noticed the sinister "shadow man" that bothered Carol. Of course, it's probably the case that her mother took the photo while her husband was standing near her, so she inadvertently captured his shadow... but when we don't know our imaginations tend to fill in the blanks.

The one of the two children dressed as Pierrot-type clowns is the one my best friend and I found to be the creepiest, for reasons that are hard to pinpoint. (Well, like Celesta I'm not a big fan of clowns, and my friend is secretly afraid of dolls so that's probably why it affected both of us.) There is something so disconcerting about the long line of ribbon being pulled out of one child's mouth by the other- but why?
Funny that the photo's so disturbing when it's clearly just a pair of small children wearing costumes... I mean, isn't it?
I can't help wishing we could find out who made the photo and why. Were they totally bent? Was it for Halloween in the 1920's? Anyway, I printed out a copy of that photo and mailed it to my niece at college- the inscription I wrote below the photo is "We're so glad you're making friends at college." (Let her figure it out.)

But the photo that really knocked me out is the one none of you mentioned- the one of the individual reclining on a sofa in semi-darkness, pointing what looks like a Luger directly at the camera!

It kind of reminds me of a 20th C. optogram- you know, the last image captured by the human eye before death?

I can't even tell if it's a man or a woman, but despite the dark room there's a crazed glint visible in their eyes. I honestly think that photo should be hanging in the Museum of Modern Art in New York... someone could actually write a whole novel or screenplay around it!

Thanks everyone. Happy Halloween!
Archaic