Web Animation / Snarled

Hey, want to hear something scary?

SNARLED is a YouTube series revolving around horror stories pertaining to the supernatural.

Known for their Something Scary segment.

Tropes that the series demonstrates:

• Abusive Parents:
  • In "Krampus", it's revealed the the protagonist's mother and and father are two such people. The mother is an alcoholic who steals straight from her own son's piggy bank to buy more alcohol. And the father? The less said about him, the better.
  • Imelda's mother in "The Pochong" is a variety where she's willing to coerce her frightened daughter into hugging the titular Pochong, despite that Imelda didn't want to touch. All so she could be rich.
  • Plot twist of "The Thing" is that the titular monster is really the little girl's abusive father, and she copes with him abusing her and her mother by imagining he's an Eldritch Abomination that feeds on their misery and fear.
• Adults Are Useless:
  • Of sorts. In "The Take-Over", Lisanne would've been freed from the evil Ruh if only her father hadn't been skeptical of the spirit world.
  • The tragic ending to the "Gruagach" story might not have happened if Elizabeth's mother had only listened to her younger sister about Tom, instead of continually grounding the child. As much as you pity her for losing her daughter to a fae, the fault lies at her feet.
  • In "The Tokoloshe", the protagonist's parents keep missing the tokoloshe and not seeing it, despite that their daughter's clearly hurt. Despite clear signs that something's attacking her, they just think she's just trying to get attention. Justified, as the tokoloshe is a kind of spirit that can only be seen by its victim.
• Asshole Victim:
  • "Krampus" has the narrator's alcoholic mother and lecherous father stuffed into the titular monster's sack to be hauled off and tortured.
  • "The Carousel" ends with the bully-some narrator torn apart limb from limb.
  • "The Red Death" has victims no different from its Victorian counterparts. Prospero is still arrogant, his friends are still pompous, and their attitude towards the general public is no less condescending or apathetic. Thankfully, their fates remain unchanged as well.
  • "Beware the old Higue" has Dalion, an irascible prankster who made it his life mission to openly tease and actively torment the widow Mrs. Benwari. Anyone who torments old ladies for fun deserves to be eaten by said-old lady.
  • In "La Planchada", Juaquin gets his due when Eulalia comes back as a ghost and irons his face to death. One can't blame her for killing him, as he not only cheated on her but also drove her to her grave.
• Bad Boss: Jai Woo is this in "The Demon in the Elevator". She's such a toxic boss, in fact, that her tendency to emotionally drain her underlings unwittingly primes them to be meals for the Jumbee.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • In "The Cursed Pocket Watch", the titular watch will grant your wish as is. But be careful making ill wishes upon your enemies, it will go the extra mile to make them suffer.
  • In "Child of the Cliff", Pastel and Greg prayed that their second child would be born... differently than their first one. Their wish comes true and their baby (Angela) is born with beautiful features. The problem is, she's actually their first child who purposefully reincarnated to be prettier. And she remembers all too well what happened in her past life.
  • "Don't invite a Duppy" brings home this trope. So, you're curious to see a duppy, eh? Well, wish granted: you're surrounded by malevolent spirits who only wish harm to you and your family.
  • "The Monster who mocks" has a boy who wanted to somehow be free of the boot camp for good. Towards the end, the monster grants his wish in the form of everybody being so afraid of him, mistaking him for the monster.
  • "The Dead are riding" has Aggatta dearly wish her fiancé Erik could return home and marry her, despite everybody else coming to terms he died in the war. The problem is, he really is dead. Unfortunately, by the time she learns this, Erik has already taken her to literally to her grave.
• Be Yourself: This trope is framed as being the moral of the story "Queen Bee", mainly a cautionary tale about trying to fit in with the "it" crowd. Allegorically, the protagonist tried to add a new porcelain doll to her grandmother's collection, even though it didn't fit in with the others, only to be singled out and destroyed by the titular "queen bee" doll when she's displeased with their new addition.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: "What happens to Life after Death" has Amy ask Kate to come with her because the latter was nice enough to play with her earlier today. If anything, there's nobody she'd rather accompany her to the afterlife than her new best friend.
• Berserk Button: In "Beware the old Higue", Dalion learns the hard way to never touch Mrs. Benwari's finger knitting projects, especially without her permission.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The titular "Julianna" falls firmly under this. In life, she was a kind, friendly and upstanding camper at Sunny Summer Camp. But after she dies, she corners the two boys responsible for her death and mercilessly send them off a cliff so they can't hurt anyone else ever again.
  • In "Silent Night, Scary Night", Uncle Ruben may have been a friendly guy in life, and still is benevolent as a spirit guarding the protagonist's family. But when a burglar threatens the protagonist and his grandmother, Uncle Ruben's spirit manifests as a giant shadow with red eyes and yells at the intruder to "GET OUT"!!
  • In the case of "Beware the old Higue", it's more like a variety where the "nice one" in question is rather a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. Her kindly old lady persona may only be a façade for the fact she's a flayed monster, but she normally targets naughty children and only attacks those who antagonize her. Ultimately, Dalion falls under this category. As the narrator so puts it, "she finally had enough hiding behind smiles..."
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • The father in "Death on 423 Stockholm Street" acts like a kind, caring father for his frightened daughter. But in reality, it hardly negates that he's a serial killer who kidnaps innocent women and tortures them within his own home, even at the expense that his own daughter is haunted by their sounds.
  • In "Missing Groom", Angelica comes off as a supportive friend and an emotional crutch for Melinda to lean on when Daniel allegedly leaves her at the wedding altar. This is in contrast to Daniel, who (although he's deeply in love with Melinda) is insanely jealous of Angelica and flips out when she comes to the wedding. But it's later revealed that, ironically enough, Angelica is even more jealous than Daniel, as she murdered him and hid his body to have Melinda all to herself.
  • Played with in "Child of the Cliff". Pastel and Greg aren't particularly maliciously, they're just a happy couple who enjoying travelling the world and seeing its natural beauty. However, the fact they secretly dropped their unnamed baby off a cliff for being disfigured speaks volumes about their character more than their love for nature.
  • In "Killer Threads", Ethan hides behind a deceptively charming facade, which hides the nature of a creepy stalker who would gladly kill and dispose of any unlucky girl he might date.
  • The titular "Queen Bee" was initially beloved and favored by the protagonist for being the prettiest out of all of her grandmother's collection. But one can guess such adoration didn't last when Bee singled out and broke the doll the protagonist got for her grandmother, in an act of petty jealousy, on top of "smirking" at her for dare stepping out of line.
  • In "Revenge of the Japanese Spirit", Hanna and Sora are popular girls who come off as your average highschool girls. But when Kido goes to a slumber party, she learns all too quickly they're a couple of thugs who like to shoplift, slash tires, and rob from blind old men.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • "The Cursed Pocket Watch" ends with Laila's life going back to normal once she returns the pocket watch to its hut. All the ill wishes she made on her enemies are reversed. Well, all but one, the one where she wished Emma was dead. Either way, nobody ever made fun of Laila again.
  • "Switched Bags": The narrator has narrowly escaped the fate of being kidnapped and trafficked, has gotten the trafficker arrested, and the girl she saved is physically recuperating. However, the narrator knows it will take a long time for the victim to recover from the traumatizing experience. And the narrator's sense of security has been shattered, now that she knows how dangerous the world can be towards girls like herself.
  • "The Kelpie": Vi's family has to move away from near bodies of water in order to stay safe from the Kelpies, and she's experienced a loss of innocence. But at the same time, she's gotten her birthday wish: she finally knows what happened to her father, finally giving her closure.
  • "My Family hates me": Desiree now understands that her family doesn't hate her so much as they are afraid of her whenever she's possessed by her demon. And if anything, she's afraid of herself too. However, if it's any consolation, she knows that as opposed to her belief they hated her, her family does care about her.
  • "Take only what you need": Leo manages to barely escape the haunted house, since he took only what he needed (the blankets his family needs to keep warm). But he can only look back as his best friend Gaylin was claimed by the house for his greed.
  • "The Forbidden Lake": The protagonist survives his experience with the Jinn of the Lake, and that includes his incident where he inexplicably coughed up eels from his mouth. His friend Augus, on the other hand, chokes one and dies. Even so, our hero is still haunted to this day by the Jinn, who only let him live on the whim of teaching him a lesson.
  • "Whispers that Bite": Chris has gotten her class to realize that the Whispers will hurt anyone, and the entire class stops. Peace has been restored, and the class knows better now. But the damage has already been done. Everybody in the class has been physically scarred by the Whispers, Ryan and Chris especially. If anything, they will all carry their scars for years to come as reminders that words can hurt.
  • "The Collector": Jada managed to narrowly escape losing her lips to the Collector. Nonetheless, Jada's mouth is scarred from nearly being ripped off. Afterwards, Jada is more wary about making promises she can't keep, aware that the Collector could come for her next year if her debt of broken promises remains unchanged.
  • "The Wechuge": Wendy helps her brother Cody regain his humanity, but the Wechuge vows it will return. The grandfather affirms that this is true, saying it will never go away and will wait for the day to possess one of them when least expected. To this, Wendy bravely responds "Then we'll keep fighting back, together, no matter what..."
  • "Krampusnacht": Krampus has justly punished Nicka for trying to scapegoat Murco as a naughty child and transformed her into a stackiersturg, though Murco does feel sorry for her. What's more, although Krampus acknowledges that Murco isn't a bad child for now, he makes it clear that he will come for the boy if he ever changes for the worse.
• Black Eyes of Evil: The infamous black-eyed children. Two children appear at the house of an elderly couple one snowy day requesting to use their phone to call their parents. When they are allowed in, the wife's husband's nose begins to bleed. Which hadn't happened before.
• Blatant Lies: In "Krampusnacht", despite being caught in the act of hiding his birch twigs, Nicka has the gall to lie to Krampus's face that the twigs weren't meant for her.
  • In "Hidden Demons", Haru is established to be pretty unkind when he mocks some people at the restaurant for their fashion choice. After the people mysteriously leave, he voices that if they had stayed longer, he would've apologized for his remarks. Judging by his sarcasm, the audience can tell he was lying, even before the narration says how Asami knows it's not true.
• Blessed with Suck: In "Lauren and Lucy", thanks to a Deal with the Devil, Lauren was born to two parents who dote on her so much for being the daughter they always wanted. But it comes at the cost that she has to continually ask her "imaginary friend" Lucy permission to do anything. Given the implications she's basically the devil's puppet, "blessed" might be too strong a word.
• Body Horror:
  • Perhaps it wasn't a good thing that Oiwa survived the poison her husband gave it, as it caused her hair to fall out into clumps, her face to droop, and her eyes to fill with blood.
  • "The Noonwraith" has Sophie be burned from the inside out, as punishment by the Noonwraith for smoking in her field.
  • The school in "Whispers that Bite" has the ability to manifest hurt feelings in the form of bug bites. Meaning if someone says something hurtful to you, you're literally scarred for life.
  • Despite being a modern retelling, "The Red Death" is still as deadly and unpleasant as ever. Painful? Check. Blood seeping from orifices and every pore on the skin? Check.
  • "Critter Valley Black" has an especially gruesome fate worse than death. When you play the cursed copy of "Critter Valley", the demon within it will steal any body part (usually bones) from within you. In the protagonist's place, it was the bone in his left shin. It doesn't help when he worries about the medical complications of losing one's bone inexplicably.
• Bully Hunter: The snow golem in "Frozen Fury" was made for a sole purpose: "punish all bullies". It works perfectly! A little too perfectly...
• Bullying the Dragon: In "The Cursed Pocket Watch", Emma makes it a point to ask (nay) badger Laila to stop making her and her friends' lives miserable. You'd think she would be humbler asking a girl with new-found powers to show them mercy. Naturally, being demanding towards Laila does not get on her good side and instead prompts her to wish Emma was dead. Next day, Emma is mauled by wolves.
  • "Beware the old Higue" is about a boy who keeps teasing and antagonizing an old widow, despite that everyone normally respects her because she's rumored to be a voracious monster who hunts naughty children. It's strongly implied that, as a Higue, Mrs. Benwari ate Dalion.
• Bystander Syndrome: Deconstructed in "Julianna". When Dustin knocks out and sews Julianna's mouth shut, Trevor merely goes along with the cruel prank (despite feeling horrified by it). Later, when confronted by the ghost of Julianna, he begs for his life and justifies "Please, I didn't do anything. Julianna's ghost coldly remarks "Exactly..."
  • "Revenge of the Japanese Spirit" has Kido stand by whenever her new "friends" do something amoral and mean-spirited, but it gets out of hand when they rob and (accidentally) murder a blind old man. She had a chance to speak up, but chose not to on the principle that the girls made her promise the secret would go to their graves. It comes back to bite her when the blind old man comes back as a tenome who kills Kido for doing nothing to defend him.
• Cain and Abel: Played with in "Sister Siren". Though quite alike as little girls, Deidre outgrew the stories of miro while her sister Kiera grew obsessed with them. The latter girl eventually summoned a miro and joined them. One sister lived out her existence as a vicious siren, while the other sister lived out her life peacefully on land. Strangely enough, the story ends with Deidre missing Kiera so much that she agrees when the latter sister offers to make her a miro too, making both sisters into the metaphorical "Cain".
  • In "Hidden Demons", Asami and Haru have shades of this. Asami is the compassionate and kindly "Abel" while her brother Haru is the bullysome and snide "Cain". Haru later turns out to be a murderous example of "Cain", as he not only murdered Asami's childhood friend Kinzi years ago for some reason, but (according to the Hitobashira spirits) was also going to murder Asami at some point.
• Came Back Wrong: In "Beware the Lure of the Dearg-Due", the young girl in the story was a kindly woman in life. But when the locals didn't put rocks on her grave, she came back as a vengeful vampire.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • In "Elizabeth", the titular character tries to invoke this. When the protagonist explains to his mother that Elizabeth Wettlaufer tricked them into eating shrimp with peanut oil, Elizabeth gaslights that the boy is delusional from the medication. Averted, as the protagonist's mother ultimately takes his word for it and breaks up with Elizabeth.
  • In "Death on 423 Stockholm St", the narrator was often written off by her parents every time she tried to tell them a monster was living on the other side of her bedroom wall. Justified, in the father's case, as he's the cause of the mysterious noises behind her bedroom wall.
  • In every sense of the word, "The Little Medium" has AJ tell her babysitter Kim about how a man named Tracy burn her alive. If only she hadn't been written off, it might've saved Kim's life to steer clear of her future boyfriend Tracy.
  • In "The Bubak", Lucia's cousin often pranks her to the point where she's skeptical towards anything she says. So when she tries to warn Lucia that the scarecrow she saw earlier was a bubak, she thinks it's just another prank in a long line of pranks she's ever pulled. Her skeptism costs her dearly.
  • Captain Oto becomes a victim of this when he tries to warn his rescuers of the Umibozu, only for them to think he's just a crazy old man losing his mind.
• Cats Are Magic: Or, in the case of "Feline Fatale", it's more like "Cats are more aware of yokai". Tequan knew, even before Abby did, that there was a Gaki lurking nearby their apartment and was trying to appease the hungry spirit.
• Cats Are Mean: In "Feline Fatale", Tequan starts hunting birds and small animals and leaving them squarely on Abby's doormat. The worst of these is when it hunts a rat and leaves its still-living body on the doormat. Justified, as Tequan was trying to appease and feed a hungry spirit known as a Gakki, who would otherwise have killed and fed upon Abby.
• Cerebus Call-Back: "Death on 423 Stockholm St" has a scene where the father would bang on the wall of his frightened daughter's wall to scare off her "monster" and bellow at the wall "Quiet down or else!" It feels like a tender heartwarming moment between father and daughter, which quickly grows sad as the protagonist somberly narrates "I miss him so much now." This takes on an unsavory feeling when one learns the father is really a serial killer, the "monster" was just his kidnapped victims trying to escape, and the protagonist misses him (not because he was killed) but because he was arrested for his crime.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In "Don't open the Door", Donna has a special bond with her father that borders on telepathic, to the point where each can tell when the other is near. This ends up saving Donna's life when she sees her father in the peephole, is about to answer the door... but doesn't feel that he's near.
  • In "Lauren and Lucy", the letter opener is one of the souvenirs the parents bought for Lauren on her sixth birthday. It comes into play when Lauren pulls a Heroic Sacrifice and stabs herself in order to save her older brother.
  • In "Misty Mountains of the Dead", Mahira's camera comes in handy at scaring off the shadows and weakening their ability to possess living people.
• Christmas Episode: Snarled has two very eerie Christmas stories, "Krampus" and "Krampus Nacht", both about the consequences of tricking Krampus. Then there's two others, "The Christmas Present" and "Silent Night, Scary Night".
• Clingy Jealous Girl: "Missing Groom" was about a competitive but loving couple named Daniel and Melinda who were about to get married, only for the groom to mysteriously disappear during a game of hide and seek on their wedding game. Afterwards (surprise, surprise), Angelica (Melinda's childhood friend/old flame) stepped in as her emotional support and became her new fiancé. However, she later learns that Daniel never abandoned her: Angelica killed him, and all out of petty jealousy and an equally petty pinky promise to have Melinda all to herself.
• Clothes Make the Maniac: "Killer Threads" has one such example of the slightly less malicious variety. The protagonist's new red dress has the ability to partly possess anyone who wears it. In her case, she's possessed by the dress's previous owner, Claire, to hunt down serial killers and go on dates with them. When she has them where she wants them, she kills them.
• Cool Old Guy: Captain Oto from "Umibozu". He's seen his fair share of strange Japanese sea creatures and monsters during his days as a sailor. And he narrowly survives an encounter with the titular Umibozu. Too bad he doesn't survive his second encounter.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: "Fancy Flopsy" has a variety where the subject in question is an imaginary friend. Fancy Flopsy wants Araceli all to himself, to the point where he will gladly stab Jeff with a box opener and then devour him.
• Creepy Doll:
  • The titular doll in "Annabelle just wants to be around you". The scary thing is, Annabelle's story is based off of a true story.
  • In "Hide and Seek", we have Charlotte, a doll that was made for the sole purpose of playing the titular game. It's a baby doll that carries around a pair of scissors, seeking the players of the game who brought it to life.
  • The porcelein doll in "Window to the Soul".
  • "Doll in the Wall" speaks for itself.
  • "Queen Bee" strongly implies that the grandmother's dolls are alive, and not very kindly to those who don't fit in with their group.
• Cruel Mercy: "Upper Melinda and Lower Melinda" has Melinda's ghost spare the protagonist from the curse for unwittingly reuniting her two halves. However, the poor girl is now forced to go through survivor's guilt, as everyone around her either gets hurt or killed. All the same, everybody in town is forced to suffer, one way or another.
• Cruel to Be Kind: In "Beware la Pisadeira", the grandmother is this to her grandchildren. When she learns from Giselle and Paolo that they've been plagued by la Pisadeira, the first thing she does is take away their breakfast without a word. Later that day, she invites the neighbor's kid Alejandro for dinner. What follows is a seemingly mean-spirited display of favoritism towards Alejandro, as she continually feeds him so much food while she only feeds her grandchildren half portions. And despite their pleas for more food, she merely ignores them. But it turns out to be the kindest thing she could do for them, as it leaves Alejandro primed for la Pisadeira and protects her own grandchildren.
• Cruel Twist Ending:
  • The ending of "Babysitter's Worst Nightmare" has the babysitter protagonist learn from the parents that the clown "doll" in her employers' home is not a doll: it's a serial killer little person dressed as a clown. Unfortunately, the babysitter learns this too little too late, as she finds her charges brutally murdered.
  • "The Bubak" could've ended on a happier note, if only Lucia's parents hadn't decided to extend their business trip, believing Lucia was old enough to be on her own just like she wanted. Since they won't come home tomorrow like Lucia hoped, help isn't coming and she and her cousin are at the Bubak's mercy until the monster captures Lucia too...
  • "Family First" seems like a scenario where the salesman is either serial killer posing as an imposter and trying to encrouch on a happy family. But it turns out, not only is the salesman innocent, he finds out too late that the family are cannibals who prey on door-to-door salesmen. And he's about to become their next meal.
  • "Stood up" seems to end on a happy enough ending. Tanya's been saved from her stalker date, Eliot's not really a stalker, and the two part ways on good terms after her date is arrested. ...Except Eliot is a stalker, as he uses the same app the date used to get all of Tanya's personal information. If anything, this forebodes that Eliot will try to abduct Tanya, and she might not see it coming.
  • "The Vampire of Serbia" was so close to having a happy ending. The hero had just slain the vampire Sava Savanovic and had freed the mill of its curse, meaning he could keep making an honest living without fear of vampires. Unfortunately, the butterfly that made Sava Savanovic a vampire escaped and, before the hero could stop it, turned his beloved fiance into a vampire. In turn, she bites him on the neck, making them both vampires.
  • "The Cheuksin" ends on Jin being dragged to her doom by the monster, all because she forgot to cough three times.
  • In "The Return of the Grim Gouger", the Gouger may be imprisoned, but what nobody accounted for was that he had a son and daughter who take after him. The cruel part is, the latter dated the son of the police officer who put her father in prison, and it ends with she and her brother killing the young man as revenge.
  • "Shadows" ends with Phoebe waiting for her family to come home in the safety of the darkness so she can be safe from Karina. The problem is, unknown to Phoebe, Karina recommended the place her mom and brothers were visiting today. So when they return home, they too are missing their shadows like Karina.
• Crying Wolf: Markeia frames "The Monster that mocks" as this, a story about a kid who joked about monsters, only to meet a real one face to face who makes it so nobody believes him when he tells the truth.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • To an extent, Krampus often falls under this trope. Although his methods are intense, he only punishes the exceptionally naughty children. Or in one case, naughty adults.
  • Although "The Pochong" may be a gristly corpse that hops around following people, it's a pretty benign being who just wants someone to free it from its wrapping, and will reward anyone who also hugs it with riches and good luck.
  • In "Silent Night, Scary Night", the giant shadow ( the ghost of the protagonist's uncle) may seem big and scary with red eyes. But the ghost is actually a benevolent spirit who just wants to watch over his family from beyond the grave, only showing hostility to the burglar who threatened said-family.
  • Ryan in "Hunted: On the Run" may be a werewolf, but deep down, he just wants to live in peace, and can't help when his werewolf side hungers for fresh meat. The same can be said for Eva, who chooses to be a vegetarian despite her vampirism, and only drinks the blood of those who try to kill her or Ryan.
  • The titular "La Siguanaba" is a monstrous half-horse-half-woman creature who stalks unfaithful men. In the case of our La Siguanaba, she's a close friend with Eliza and goes on her behalf to see if her husband Alejandro is unfaithful. She's even benevolent enough to promise Eliza she will care for her and her baby until she can get back on her feet.
  • Discussed in "Shadows". Phoebe has a habit of making sure she and her family have their shadows because she sees them as benevolent embodiments of one's humanity. Likewise, if someone lacks a shadow, Phoebe considers it a bad sign that something inhuman resides in that person. To further build on this trope, Phoebe is able to keep Karina from stealing her shadow by turning off the lights, keeping her shadow invisible from the threat.
• Darker and Edgier: "Fitcher's Bird" is a darker take on fairy tales, culminating in a dark (but satisfying) ending where our protagonists burn the warlock and his guests alive in his own castle.
• Dead All Along: The plot twist in "Mae Nak Phra Khanong". Ironically, despite his worries that he'd die while at war, Mae Nak's husband is shocked to learn his wife and child have been dead for a while.
• Death Glare: Mrs. Benwari in "Beware the old Higue" gives our protagonist such a menacing frown for a moment when she mentions the absent Dalion.
• Demonic Possession:
  • Sapphire shares a story about how her Aunt's niece was once possessed by a Duende for stepping on its favorite anthill.
  • Lisanne is also a victim of this in "The Take-Over".
  • The plot twist in "My Family hates me". Desiree learns that the demon that's been haunting her is actually herself preying upon her family.
  • "The Djinn" possesses the protagonist's friend, Sara.
  • "My New Friend" has a variety where the one possessing the victim isn't a demon, per say, but a boy who can live out the life of anybody who welcomes him.
  • "The Wechuge" is a nature spirit that will possess anyone who breaks taboo in order to grow stronger.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Vi from "The Kelpie" never knew her father, and her mother and grandfather hardly ever talk about him. It turns out he was murdered by a Kelpie years ago. The reason her family never mentioned it was because they were too scared to admit it to themselves.
  • Imelda (from "The Pochong") doesn't seem to have a father around, as evidenced when she has no next of kin after her mother's death.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Prenitha from "Lady in the Red Saree" lives on as a ghost who is said to haunt men who stay out too late in her woods and are neglecting their wives at home. The problem was, Vivec wasn't neglecting his wife and child when he took the job that took him to her woods. As opposed to not getting a job and letting his family starve, he got the job to take care of them. All the same, Prenitha punishes Vivec with insanity that eventually lead to his wife leaving him.
  • "You can't burry the Truth" reveals that our narrator Lucy did indeed murder her best friend because she blames her for how her mispronouncing her name ("Ludie") as a child lead to everyone teasing her over it.
• Double Entendre: In "Krampusnacht", the narration describes how Murco "no longer recognized his sister", in the sense that he wouldn't have known this stackiersturgg used to be Nicka if he hadn't witnessed Krampus transform her. Likewise, Nicka (as a stackiersturgg) "no longer recognized him either", in the sense that all memory of her brother or her life as a human have been wiped clean from her mind.
• Downer Ending:
  • "The Take-Over" ends on the sad fact that Lisanne seeking spiritual help for the Ruh has come too little too late. She's been with the Ruh for so long that to separate their bond could possibly kill her.
  • "Gruagach" ends with Amelia abducted by Tom, despite her and her older sister's best efforts to convince their mother to appease the fae. Devastated by the loss, there's nothing the mother can do except desperately buy dozens of honey jars and beg Tom to brings back her daughter.
  • "Life imitates Art" ends with Patrick's painting of the bleeding man coming true, in the form of his father dying in a pool accident. Not only does this rob Patrick any chance of reconciling with his father, but he begins to think of his ability to draw the future as a curse. That just leaves one painting that hasn't come true yet: the portrait of Patrick being devoured and torn apart by monsters.
  • "Upper Melinda and Lower Melinda": The protagonist not only set Melinda free by accident but has also set upon her town a curse. Now everyone around her is cursed to either be gruesomely injured or even killed. Except for herself, who Melinda spared on the basis of reuniting her two halves. However, the protagonist feels very much cursed with Surivor's guilt, as now it means she must watch her town suffer horribly injuries and/or deaths. And it doesn't help when one bears in mind the townsfolk did nothing to Melinda, compared to their ancestors who killed her for being a witch.
  • "Lauren and Lucy": The protagonist is wrongfully sent to Juvie Hall for something he didn't do (murder his sister Lauren, who he learned too little too late actually cared for him). And he doesn't know for how long he'll be imprisoned. Meanwhile, his parents (who sold their soul to Lucifer to concieve Lauren) are out there walking free, rid of the son they never asked for. And chances are, the protagonist suspects they'll try for another daughter.
  • "The Christmas Present": On top of the mother's personal information being compromised and turning her life upside-down, her relationship with her son has been damaged thanks to her vain attempt to destroy the Best Friend toy. And until she destroys all her electronic devices, there's no stopping the stranger from finding her.
  • "Don't invite a Duppy": The protagonist's mother and sisters have been killed by the duppies, and to add insult to injury, her late Uncle Lewis appears before her as a cruel Duppy reciting "Duppy, duppy, come to me".
  • "The Baker's Inn": Gertrude's new job has managed to save her family's dairy farm, as well as get revenge on the man who conned her out of her mule. But her little victory comes at the price that now she's in the employ of the murderous baker and forced to use human flesh for their meat pies, lest she end up in a meat pie herself.
  • "Rokurokubi" has the older brother kill his younger brother's rokurokubi fiancée. The tragic thing is, her nature wasn't monstrous, and the reason the younger brother kept it secret was because he was afraid the brother wouldn't understand. Nonetheless, the damage has already been done: the misunderstanding has lead to the fiancée's death and widened the rift between the brothers. It ends with the older brother praying his younger brother forgives him, and acknowledging he'll understand if his brother never speaks to him again.
  • "Umibozu": Captain Oto tries to warn the sailors who rescue him about the Umibozu, but they lock him up in the brig. To his bad luck, they encounter the Umibozu from before, and this time, Captain Oto isn't so lucky to escape.
  • "The Demon in the Elevator": Jess/the Jumbee has eaten Allison. What's worse is, Jess already hiring another intern for Jai Woo implies that the cutthroat artist is unwittingly perpetuating a vicious cycle of people being primed to be eaten by the Jumbee.
  • "The Monster that mocks": The Mimic ultimately makes a scapegoat of the boy, as he wreaks havoc on the boot camp and devours some of the people there. And the boy is left standing in the rubble of it all, left to take all the blame.
  • "The Oath": Our protagonists are claimed by the Mirror Demon, as part of the real estate agent's desperate plan to appease the demon and get back her son in exchange. But the Mirror Demon promises he'll let him out if he brings in one more family. If the narration is anything to go by, this is not the first time the Mirror Demon's made this promise, making his promises unreliable and empty. But wearily, the real estate agent has no choice, as she sells the house yet again and once again dooms an innocent family out of vain hope she'll get her son back.
  • "The Shapeshifting Yaksha": Despite his best efforts to save himself and his mother, Ronin is paralyzed and eaten by his Yaksha stepfather Dev. Shortly after, Dev is able to spin a story to explain Ronin's absence. The story ends with the mother doomed to fall into the devious shapeshifter's trap like so many of his pitiful previous victims. If the ghost girl's warning is any indication, Ronin and his mom weren't the first mother and child drawn in by the Yaksha's deception, and they probably won't be the last...
  • "The Tulpa": The protagonist quits his job at the laboratory, but the scientists have already done their damage to him. He's come out of the experience for the worse, psychologically and emotionally scarred, and the Tulpa has now started hunting down his loved ones and gutting them.
  • "Yuki-Onna": Minokichi's Yuki-onna wife spares his life once again, but at a terrible price that she takes away their children against his wishes. Minokichi spends the rest of his life searching the snowy wilderness for his family and trying to make amends for his broken promise. Although he had many grand adventures along the way, he never returned to his village ever again.
  • "Lady in the Red Saree": Vivec narrowly escapes Prenitha's ghost and gladly returns to his wife and child, and it seems like the story will end on a happy note. ...that is, except Vivec's experience with the ghost has left him mentally scarred, to the point where it was exceptionally difficult for his wife to stay with him and she eventually leaves him. All in all, Prenitha has wrongfully taken all that Vivec held dear, even though he wasn't neglecting his family.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: "Krampus" ends with the protagonist and his sister not only rid of their horrible parents, but also each being adopted by Santa Claus and Krampus, respectively.
  • "Hunted: On the Run" ends on a very sweet and romantic note. After each party has been on the run from trigger-happy hunters, Eva the Vampire and Ryan the Werewolf become a couple, able to live in peace now that they'll watch each other's backs.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Murco experiences betrayal in "Krampusnacht" when he learns his sister put the birch twigs meant for her in his boots. He doesn't know what hurts most: that his sister is about to be punished, or that she betrayed him in the first place.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Baker in "The Baker's Inn" may use humans for his meat pies, but when Gertrude admits she didn't mean to buy his meat pies with coutnerfeited silver and explains how a man conned her with the silver, the Baker shows a considerably softer side.
• Everybody Has Standards: "The New Orleans House" explores this. Taking place before equal rights, people may have treated their slaves as mere chattel, but they did have laws against mistreating them. Compared to that, Delphine Lelaurie had no compunctions about doing... unspeakable atrocities to her slaves. In fact, when her house burnt down and exposed her cruelties, the whole town mobbed against her and chased her out of town.
• Evil Old Folks: The Grandmother in "Lady Blanca". Even before cursing her daughter-in-law and granddaughters, she was a nasty woman who made it a point to abuse and torment her grandchildren, from starving them to making them clean up after her, to calling them nasty names until they cried.
  • The old widow in "The Tokoloshe" is awfully mean-spirited towards the protagonist by cursing her with the titular monster on the basis of moving into her former home she was forced to sell. And she doesn't get better when she agrees to remove the curse from the girl, but instead punishes the parents who are just as guiltless of taking her home.
  • Unsurprisingly, "Grandma Dearest" reveals the grandmother of the story has long-mutated into a mindless monster that eats anything that moves.
  • Downplayed with Mrs. Benwari from "Beware the old Higue". Although rumors of her being a higue turn out to be true, the legends say they only hunt naughty children. And besides, she normally minds her own business and won't bother you unless you antagonize her. If you do antagonize her, well, you've been warned...
• Exact Words: In "Legend of the Tokoloshe", the old woman promised the protagonist she would lift the curse of the tokoloshe off her. She never said anything about not sending the tokoloshe after the girl's parents in her stead.
  • In "Grandma Dearest", the uncle explains that the reason the protagonist must've disturb her grandmother is because she "had fallen ill and no longer remembered family members." It turns out to be a very accurate statement, not because the grandmother is senile, but because she's devolved into a feral monster.
  • In "Yuki-Onna", the snow spirit has Minokichi promise he would never speak of their meeting and made him swear on everything he held dear. Later, when he does tell about the Yuki-Onna to his children, he indeed loses "everything he held dear". The twist is, he doesn't lose his life, but something else: his children and his Yuki-Onna wife are lost to him, ergo "everything he held dear". To top it off, Minokichi ends up selling his family inn in order to travel the land in search of his wife and their children.
• Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: Compared to "Something Scary's" fantastical stories of horror and monsters, "Switched Bags" explores the narrator stumbling upon a trafficking ring, a world problem so real yet so horrifically mundane.
  • "The Show must go On" is about an actress who faces the all too common problem of stalking when Obadiah Knox is obsessed with her. And this takes place in a world where vampires exist.
• Forced Transformation: Emma was inexplicably turned into the titular "Dog Girl" one night, and there's no explaination for why or how she changed, but she hasn't been the same since she became a half-girl-half-dog creature.
  • Kirby from "Terror Tutorial" becomes a succubus when the make-up kit she ordered turns out to be powered by black magic.
  • "Tricky Treats" ends with Alphonse and Parker respectively turned into a werecat and a weredog, after they eat Dr. Elfman's candy.
• For Want Of A Nail: The narrator Lucy figures she wouldn't have grown to resent and murder her friend if only she had not mispronounced it as "Ludy". Then kids would not have teased how it rhymed with Cooties, followed her well into highschool, and lead to Sean saying "Do you still have cooties?" that was the final straw.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In "Death on 423 Stockholm St", the protagonist's father assures that whatever she thinks is trying to scratch its way into her room can't do so because there's three inches of solid metal on the other side of her bedroom wall. And he should know, he built the house himself. Turns out, its a hint that the father is to blame for what's been scratching at her wall.
  • In "Child of the Cliff", Angela's uneasiness at visiting Mines View Park is the first sign she's actually Pastel and Greg's first baby reincarnated as their second child.
  • In "Whispers that Bite", the councilor trying to hide a pock-mark and emphasizing that the school is extra special clues us in that the school has the ability to manifest how badly someone's words hurt you.
  • In "The Oath", the real estate agent congratulates our protagonists on buying the house and "hopes they'll be the last tenants". We later learn she's been selling this house to tenant after tenant in hopes that sacrificing them to the Mirror Demon will free her son.
  • "Hunted: On The Run" hints at Eva being a vampire when Ryan narrates how her hand is "cool to the touch". As in, cool as a corpse...
    • Also, it's rather coincidental that the conductor would claim there's an "additional passenger", while Eva claims she can't find a room because the train was "oversold". One of them has to be lying.
  • "Don't Blink" has a postcard that reads " I feel transformed." That can't be a coincidence.
  • "Krampunacht" has Murco offhandedly mention his sister Nicka isn't perfect, as she had previously changed her school grades to make her F into a B. This tells us early on that Nicka isn't entirely innocent, and isn't above fudging results.
  • In "Feline Fatale", Abby's friends explain that Tequan hunting small animals is natural behavior, as cats often do this to teach their owners how to hunt. Towards the end of the story, it's revealed that though Tequan grew too old to hunt for offerings for the Gakki, he taught Abby how to hunt.
  • "You can't bury the Truth" has a shot of a photo on a refrigerator of Jayda and Lucy together as Kindergarteners. Notably, most of Lucy's face is covered by a magnet. This is meant to hint we don't know Lucy's whole story. And by the end, we see Lucy's true nature.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: As opposed to the macabre and gruesome stories of horror, "What happens to Life after Death" is a strangely lighter story about a girl who second-hand experiences the moment before death with her new-found friend.
• Freudian Excuse: In "The Tokoloshe", the old lady cursed our protagonist with the tokoloshe, but it was not out of simple spite alone. She's also driven by the fact that the house the protagonist moved into was formerly her home, before she was forced to sell it to the girl's family after her husband passed. Still, as sorry as the protagonist feels for her, it's rather mean-spirited of her to take it out on the family's daughter.
• Gaslighting:
  • The protagonist in "The Monster who mocks" soon finds himself in a situation where the mimic frames him for so many dangerous pranks around the boot camp. Nobody believes him when he insists it wasn't his doing. Worse still, it's to a point where the protagonist doubts himself for being innocent of these pranks.
  • Nicka in "Krampusnacht" pretty much pulls this off. When she knocks over hers and her brother's boots to hide the fact she received Krampus's birch twigs, it's enough to make Murco believe for a moment he got the twigs for pranking his sister one too many times.
• Giant Spider: The pumpkins in "Pumpkin Panic" secretly hide such a gigantic creature within their shells.
• Gone Horribly Right: In "The Pochong", Imelda' mother was eager that her daughter hug the titular pochong because it would bestow riches upon their family. What she didn't count on is that those riches could only come in the form of her dying and Imelda being adopted by a wealthy family.
  • In "Legend of the Tokoloshe", the protagonist tries to get the widow to stop cursing her with a tokoloshe. The old lady knowingly agrees to lift the curse. ...And instead, takes it out on the parents, who may have neglected the protagonist as "seeking attention" but are no less guilty for the widow losing her home.
  • In "Frozen Fury", Amara and Daphna made a snow golem whose purpose is to "punish all bullies" so their own bullies would stop picking on them. Unfortunately, when Daphna starts terrorizing their intimidated bullies, the snow golem registers her as a bully and tries to punish her.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: When the protagonist in "Don't invte a Duppy" invited her Uncle Lewis's duppy (along with 13 other duppies) just to see him one last time, she didn't intend for her uncle's duppy to murder her mother and sisters.
• Greed:
  • The main theme of the story "Gold Coins". Sophia might not have perished if only Isabella had been content with having just enough coins to help her ailing son. Though she's not solely to blame: had the Bellacos family not been stingy with paying Isabella, there's a chance the chain of events that sealed Sophia's fate could've been all together avoided.
  • Imelda's mother (in "The Pochong") was nothing short of delighted when she learned her daughter was being followed by a pochong. According to legend, if a pochong is following you, hugging it will lead to it bestowing your family with riches. So one can imagine what drove her to force her daughter to hug an icky corpse.
  • "Take only what you need" explores this. The Haunted House seems to give a choice to those who enter it in order to plunder its riches. You can either take what you want or take only what you need. Those who take what they need ( like Leo) will be allowed to leave, while those who get avaricious and try to take what they want ( like Gaylin) aren't so lucky.
• The Grotesque: Pastel and Greg's first-born daughter in "Child of the Cliff". She was born with one arm smaller than the other, one ear folded over, and her eyes bulging and uneven.
• Happy Ending: One can't refute Sapphire when she says the legend of Oiwa ends on a "happy ending", considering Oiwa was able to make her murderous husband pay dearly for betraying her and pushing her off a cliff.
  • "Silent Night, Scary Night" ends on a remarkably wholesome ending. Thanks to Uncle Ruben's ghost, the protagonist family are safe from the buglar (who confesses to the police he was sent to scare them off). What's more, Uncle Ruben's ghost (true to his character in life) leaves a big pile of shiny gold coins to help the family pay for their home. And to this day, his ghost still leaves coins to let his loved ones know he's looking out for them.
  • "Battle of Behemoths" ends with Grace not only saved by the good giant Fionn McCuul, but Fionn also saving her sister Nora.
• Harmful to Minors: The serial killer in "Death on 423 Stockholm St" has a special room for torturing his victims. ...Which is on the other side of the wall of his daughter's bedroom. And this is despite that she can hear the noises.
• Hate Sink It's one thing when the grandmother in "Lady Blanca" is abusive to her granddaughters by starving them and badmouthing them. But as the story progresses, we learn she's far more mean-spirited than that. It turns out she's a practitioner of black magic, meaning she sold her soul at one point. She tortured and sacrificed a mother cat and her newborn kittens to invoke a terrible curse. She used this power to send a malicious demon to torment her daughter-in-law and innocent granddaughters. And this is despite how they took care of her.
• He Who Fights Monsters:
  • In "Hunted: On the Run", the conductor/vampire hunter falls under this for relentlessly hunting vampires simply because legends say they're evil monsters.
  • In "The Wechuge", Cody used to be a scrawny little kid relentlessly bullied and picked on for his size. But after he went through a growth spurt, he took advantage of his newfound size and strength to terrorize them. This is highly deconstructed when it leads to Cody becoming a wechuge. Wendy has to point out that he's becoming just as bad as the bullies he hurt, maybe even worse.
  • Daphna in "Frozen Fury" falls for this. When the snow golem she and her sister made finally stops the other kids from bullying them, the power gets to her head and she makes her former bullies give them lunches. Unfortunately, the snow golem was made for one purpose: "Punish all bullies".
• Heel Realization: In "The Collector", Jada is devastated to realize she had let so many people down with her broken promises when she learns the Collector doesn't go after people who owe money, but rather people who have broken their obligations in one form or another.
• Hell Is That Noise: "The Tulpa" is often preceded by disturbing sounds such as a feedback loops and shrieks, as a result of the experiment to see if the protagonist could imagine his double despite distracting noises.
• Hope Spot:
  • In "The Baker's Inn", Gertrude thought she was especially lucky when a gentleman with a feathered cap bought her mule with a bag of silver. It's not too long when she learns the silver was counterfeited.
  • In "The Cheuksin", Jin thought she had properly appeased the titular creature by leaving that rice ball. But at the last moment, she remembered that she had forgotten to cough three times, just as the Cheuksin captures in her in grip.
  • "Razor Games" ends with Andre and Ciera going to check on Jay. When they see the headset on the floor at the dungeon, they're relieved for a moment and think he went home...until they notice that underneath the headset is Jay's still-beating heart, all that's left of him...
• Horror Hates a Rulebreaker: In "The Noonwraith", Ola's father tells his son, his daughter, and his daughter's friend Sophie not to go outside on a scorching day. Naturally, Sophie, who Ola notes loved ignoring rules, talks Ola into going out into the grain field with her, where she lights up a cigarette. The titular spirit kills Sophie, and Ola only escapes with her life because her little brother arrives to pull her away.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • The family in "Family comes First".
  • The Baker/Inn-keeper in "The Baker's Inn". He uses some of his guests as meat for his meat pies.
• Humanoid Abomination: Several such as the aforementioned Black-Eyed Children, or the Eight Foot Tall woman, a Japanese spirit that spirits away children.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Conductor/Vampire Hunter in "Hunted: On the Run" epitomizes this, as he obsesses over hunting vampires "because of myths and trumped up stories". Towards the end, Ryan even makes it a point to refer to the antagonist as "the real monster" after calling himself a monster so many times.
• Hypocrite: In "La Siguanaba", Alejandro finds himself staring down the titular monster and at its mercy. He tries to squirm his way out of this predicament by pleading that he has a wife and child. However, la Siguanaba points out that if Alejandro's family really mattered to him, he wouldn't have chosen to go with Marianna.
• Human Trafficking:
  • "Don't buy an RT" has a story that's essentially about a girl abducted for the nefarious purpose of being trafficked as a servant.
  • "Switched Bags" explores the all too real situation of stumbling upon a human trafficking and/or nearly becoming a victim of it.
• I Am a Monster: Ryan from "Hunted: On the Run" feels this way about himself, given his lycanthropy. At one point, he struggles to repress his werewolf transformation and "refused to be the monster". But he gives into this mindset when Eva notices his teeth and fur. It doesn't last when he finds common ground with Eva's vampirism.
• I Ate WHAT?!:
  • "Do this in Memory of Me" has a very disturbing example. On first glance, Eduardo's pozole tasting tougher just seems to be a case of him being a less skilled cook than his wife Lupe. But it turns out Eduardo is such a zealot who literally worships his wife, he made her body into pozole so they would eat it "in memory of her". Naturally, not only does the narrator react badly when she discovers a thumb in her pozole, but the rest of the church members who ate it begin vomiting the abominable pozole.
  • Poor Gertrude from "The Baker's Inn" is nauseated when she learns the stuffing in the baker's meat pies are made from human flesh.
• I Never Told You My Name: There's a variant in "La Siguanaba". Alejandro should've been suspicious after finding out Marianna knows the name of his wife, Elisa.
• I Warned You: In "The Little Medium", poor AJ feels awful that her foretelling of Tracy couldn't save her childhood babysitter Kim, saying "I tried to warn her..."
• Idiot Ball:
  • One in "My Deadly Routine". You'd think a father would know better than to forget his own daughter was sitting in his car, especially on a sweltering hot day. Well, if the ending is anything to go by, our protagonist could use more common sense. And a changed routine is honestly no excuse for it.
  • "Don't invite a Duppy" has the protagonist do just the opposite of the story's title: she invites duppies! Even if it was out of morbid curiosity, even if it was out of grief to see her deceased uncle one last time, it was still stupid of the protagonist to invite all those duppies, especially when her uncle warned her about duppies being malevolent.
  • "The Oath" has the realtor continually sell the haunted house to new buyers on the vain hope that if the Mirror Demon claims them, this time, he'll keep his promise and set her son free. Granted she's desperate and just trying to save her boy, one should know better than to trust a demon to keep a promise. Even Markeia lampshades that promises are only as good as the people you make them with.
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers
  • "The M Show" has (as seen through the eyes of the innocent child narrator) a mother having her child kidnapped from right under her. And it just gets better when the kidnappers send her a video tape of her daughter blissfully having fun with them, unaware of her fate. This is every parents' worst nightmare.
  • "Gruagach": The mother didn't listen to her youngest daughter about her friend Tom, and before she knows it, Amelia is abducted by the Gruagach to be its slave. And all she can do is helplessly beg for the Gruagach to return her daughter.
• Ironic Echo:
  • "The Missing Groom" ends with Angelica ominously reminding Melinda of the pinky promise they made as children "Together forever, no matter what". Instead of being a whimsical childhood promise like before, it comes off as a reflection of how unhinted and jealous Angelica was to murder Daniel to have his bride instead.
  • In "Do this in Memory of me", Sapphire narrates the concept of Transubstantiation, and how it's believed it brings everyone closer to God. In the end, the phrase takes on an ominous and zealous tone when Eduardo tries to justify feeding everyone pozole made from his wife's corpse when he claims "We're all closer to God".
• It's All My Fault: In "The Chalava", Monica says this verbatim when she declares the titular entity nearly harming her brother was her fault. Sadly, she's not too far off.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In "Krampusnacht", Murco is ultimately this trope. Although he's mischievous and loves to prank his sister Nicka, he's still a decent brother. Krampus even lampshades that he's not (yet) a bad child, at least when compared to his sister.
• Jerkass: Frazier from "The House of Doon". To sum him up, he was a Chad before "Chad" was a thing. He was a daredevil who liked to push the envelope, even when it makes others uncomfortable to test the rules.
• Jump Scare: A literal one in "The Pochong". The animation makes it scary to watch the Pochong leap so closely to Imelda.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Compared to their son (who was falsely sent to Juvie), the parents in "Lauren and Lucy" not only get away with selling their souls in order to acquire a daughter, but it's suspected they're going to try again.
  • In "The Tulpa", the scientists get away with so much. On top of creating the titular monster that torments our protagonist, they do all sorts of unethical things to him. When he willingly refuses to summon his Tulpa on the principle that it makes him uneasy, they forcibly sedate him, drug him and strap him down so they can further study the creature. It's even implied that the scientists psychologically torture the protagonist by not acknowledging him and instead talk to his Tulpa, giving him a gaslighted feeling he doesn't exist. If one was hoping these unethical scientists got their comeuppance, don't get any hopes up.
• Karmic Nod: Although Nicka lies about the birch twigs being in Murco's boots, she ultimately comes clean and gives her brother the silver bell that was really in his boots.
• Karmic Transformation: For trying to scapegoat her brother Murco as the naughtier child, Krampus punishes Nicka by transforming her into a stachiersturg.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In "The Carousel", the mean narrator had no qualms about torturing one of his friends by rocking the ferris wheel carriage they were in, especially with rumors that they were unsteady.
  • Dalion in "Beware the old Higue" makes it a point to taunt and torment Mrs. Benwari for the sole purpose of "just keeping [her] company".
  • Out of all Daphna and Amira's bullies in "Frozen Fury", Keith proves to be one of the cruelest when he not only takes their lunches, but one day spites them by purposefully stomping on the lunch bags.
  • In "You can't bury the Truth", Sean let Lucy flirt with her before snidely bringing up her much-hated nickname and making out with her friend instead, who just so happened to invent that nickname.
• Kids Are Cruel:
  • "Whispers that Bite" wouldn't have happened if the kids at Chris's school didn't have a tendency to whisper bad things about her, especially Ryan.
  • The children in "Frozen Fury", and how! The children who live on Daphna and Amira block love to torment the two sisters. They throw snowballs packed with rocks at them, empty the girls' backpacks, and among them, Keith steals the sisters' lunches.
• The Krampus: "You better watch out, You better not cry" is a rhyming story about a family hiding in vain from Krampus.
• Lady in Red:
  • The protagonist becomes this in "Killer Threads" after she finds and buys a mysterious red dress she found at a thrift store.
  • Prenitha from "Lady in the Red Saree" speaks for itself. As a ghost, she not only wears a red saree, but her saree is apparently made up of blood.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In "The legend of Oiwa", in order to remarry a richer woman, Iaman tried to poison his wife Oiwa and killed their unborn child in the process. Failing that, pushed her off a cliff. Even after her death, Oiwa came back as a ghost and haunted her husband. She gets her revenge when she tricks Iaman into decapitating his bride during the wedding ceremony, and later, pushes him off the very same cliff he pushed off of.
  • In "The Pochong", Imelda's mother forced Imelda to hug the pochong, despite that her daughter didn't want to so much as touch it, because it's believed that if you hug a pochong that's following you, it will bestow you riches. After drinking so many cocktails to celebrate her oncoming wealth, the mother is rewarded for her rotten parenting when she's struck dead on the road while she drunkenly stumbled home one night. Meanwhile, her poor daughter (was forced to hug the pochong against her wishes) was adopted by a rich family.
  • In "The Collector", this is the titular monster's M.O. It preys upon college students with the biggest unpaid debts. The twist is, it preys on students who owe people something other than money, and takes body parts that poetically reflect what they owe others. For instance, it once took Claire's right ear because she didn't lend a listening ear to those who needed it most. And Jada was nearly a victim too, as it nearly took her lips for making too many empty promises.
  • In "Gotta kill them all", the Collector grabs Damien's arm (the one wearing a wrist watch) for leaving his post on borrowed time.
  • Alphonse and Parker from "Tricky Treats" stole one too much candy from trusting adults, so they sealed their fates when they stole candy from Dr. Elfman.
• Littlest Cancer Patient: Amy in "What happens to Life after Death?"
• Macabre Moth Motif: The moths and the mothman in "Final Score".
• Mad Scientist: It's implied that the scientists in "The Tulpa" are this, given all the unethical psychological torment they put the protagonist through.
  • Dr. Elfman from "Trick Treats" has performed all sorts of unethical tests on animals.
• Mama Bear: Susan in "Elizabeth". When she suspects that her new girlfriend Elizabeth Wettlaufer tried to kill her son, she breaks up with her, not wanting to spend time with somebody who would hurt her flesh and blood.
• Manipulative Bastard: Dev in "The Shapeshifting Yaksha" is apparently one step ahead of Ronin and his mother. He sent the mother on a grand tour of the city while he lured her son Ronin to his lair at an abandoned hotel and ate him up. Then, he phoned the mother and told her Ronin decided to tag along with his biological father and second wife to their honeymoon in Hawaii. The mother is none the wiser...
• Manipulative Bitch: In "The Kelpie", one of them tricks the protagonist Vi into thinking her long lost father sent her this mysterious white horse as a birthday gift.
  • Nicka from "Krampusnacht". She was willing to let Murco take the fall for having birch twigs when she was the one who got them. Thankfully, Krampus is too cunning to fall for her lies.
• The Marvelous Deer: A more malicious variant in "Roadkiller". The pure white reindeer that Annie and Katherine encounter on the road is really a skinwalker that's trying to kill them.
• Meaningful Echo: In "Beware the old Higue", Dalion taunts Mrs. "How do you like your babies, Mrs. Benwari: roasted or stewed?" Later, when she approaches Dalion in her true form, Mrs. Benwari croaks "I like them cooked slow..."
• Mirror Monster: "The Oath" features a Mirror Demon who took advantage of the real estate agent who's desperately trying to help her son escape the Mirror Demon's clutches, by continually making hollow promises that he'll free her son if he lures in one more family for him.
• Monster Clown: The titular "Fancy Flopsy" is revealed to secretly be some sort of insectoid Eldritch Abomination as it devours Jeff.
• More Teeth Than The Osmonds: The dancing creepypasta in "Bright like Knives" has long teeth.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: In "Elizabeth", the protagonist was nearly killed by her mother's girlfriend Elizabeth Wettlaufer, because she was petty enough to believe her girlfriend's son was getting between them.
  • Angelica killed Daniel during his wedding in order to have Melinda to herself, on the principle that as childhood friends, they pinky promised to be "together forever, no matter what".
• No Honor Among Thieves: Lampshaded by Markeia in "Final Score". Midway through the story, Joe ultimately stabs Mike when the two have an altercation about splitting the jewels between each other.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: In "The 9 Deaths", Laurance's estranged aunt Natasha became a teenage mother years ago, around the time Laurance's parents married. Resenting her infant daughter, Natasha tried to kill her in different ways, only to be successful on the 9th try. Her secret deed would've remained buried. But when Natasha visited Laurance's parents to meet her neice for the first time, the fact she just so happened to share the same name as Natasha's baby ("Laurance") was enough to make Natasha confess her crimes.
• Obliviously Evil: "Do this in Memory of Me" has Eduardo claim he didn't do anything wrong when everybody turns on him. This is despite that he had just confessed to making his pozole out of his late wife's body and having everybody in the church eat it "in memory of her".
• Obviously Evil: A variety in "Killer Threads". While he's not a Dastardly Whiplash kind of evil, Ethan is a human approximation of red flags, as he does all sorts of things that set off the protagonist's alarm. From acting pleased when she claims to have had too much wine, right down to mentioning his last girlfriend wore the same red dress, it's transparent that no woman should trust Ethan.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Heavily deconstructed. "Obnoxious" doesn't even begin to describe the horrible grandmother in "Lady Blanca". She despises the protagonist and her sister for being related to her daughter-in-law, taking all her hatred towards their mother out on them. On top of actively putting a rift between the mother and father, she abused and mistreated her grandchildren up until her son's divorce. And this was all before she cursed them.
• Offing the Offspring: "Child of the Cliff" has Pastel and Greg drop their unnamed first-born off a cliff because she was born deformed.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Eva in "Hunted: On the Run" is a vampire, but for some reason, she doesn't have to drink blood all the time. She has the freedom to be a vegetarian if she wants, and if the ending is any indication, can walk out into the sunlight without being harmed.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: "Attacked by a Skinwalker" has skin-walkers, who become wolves by wearing their skin. The only way to become one is to kill a family member or close friend.
• Outliving One's Offspring: "Gold Coins" has Sophia's parents come home to find their daughter and maid missing. When they finally locate her, all they find is a corpse. The hardest part to swallow is, this was technically their fault, given the whole thing started because they were cheap and didn't pay Isabella a fair wage.
• Parental Obliviousness: Played with. One would think Imelda's mother would be concerned about an animated corpse hopping around and following her only daughter. But rather, she's actually happy to hear the news. Justified, as pochongs aren't malicious and hugging one will lead to one's family being bestowed riches.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: In "Tricky Treats", Dr. Elfman may be a mad scientist who has performed unethical experiments on the neighborhood pets she abducted, but that doesn't make Parker or Brent (who violate Trick or Treat etiquettes on a yearly basis) any less deserving of their fate: becoming her new human test subjects.
• Pet the Dog: The Baker in "The Baker's Inn" is angry at Gertrude at first when she tries to buy one of his meat pies with counterfeited silver. But when she admits she didn't know the silver was counterfeited. She even explains that the silver was acquired when she was conned out of her family mule by a conman. This causes the Baker to not only apologize for losing his temper, but to treat Gertrude with a free pie to comfort her. He even goes the extra mile and employs her at the inn so she can earn money to save her family's dairy farm.
  • In "Krampusnacht", although Krampus is the demon of yuletide punishments, he does acknowledge that Murco is not bad enough to be punished by him, for now.
• Plot Allergy: In "Elizabeth", the protagonist is allergic to peanuts. This comes into play when the murderous Elizabeth Wettlaufer tricks him into eating shrimp with peanut oil, lying through her teeth it doesn't have peanut oil.
• Poor Communication Kills: "Queen Bee" has a major one between the protagonist and her grandmother. In trying to surprise her grandmother with a new doll, the protagonist didn't know the dolls had a life of their own and would single out their new addition. None of this would've happened if the grandmother had found the time of day to share with the protagonist the true nature of these dolls.
• The Power of Love: Wendy saves her brother Cody from the curse of "The Wechuge" by reminding him of her sisterly love for him.
• Properly Paranoid: In "Missing Groom", it's easy to write off Daniel as jealous and possessive of his fiancé Melinda when he constantly frets that she has feelings for her childhood friend Angelica, and that she'll come between them. In a cruel irony, he's right: not only does Angelica kill Daniel to get him out of the picture, but she moves in on Melinda and they get engaged years later.
• Prophecy Twist: "The thing that will kill you is gathering skins, the thing that will kill you is washing the blood off of its claws, the thing that will kill you is sharpening its teeth, the thing that will kill you is shedding its skin, the thing that will kill you... you won't see it coming." As it turns out, the thing that allegedly will kill the narrator is not a monster (in the loose sense) but an ordinary man named Michael Carton. She discovers this by piecing together that all the things he's doing (in possession of Tina's scalp, flossing, showering, removing his coat) respectively mirror what "the thing" does.
• Raised by Grandparents: "The Chalava" has Gourav and his sister, who grew up with their grandmother.
  • It's implied that Giselle and Paolo from "Beware la Pisadeira" live with their grandmother.
• Read the Freaking Manual: In "Terror Tutorial", Kirby might not have used the limited edition make-up kit, had she bothered to read the instructions: " Vain of heart beware, you're next. Those that use this kit be hexed." Ilana even lampshades this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In "Krampus", Santa shows disdain towards the protagonist's despicable parents, and he sums it up like so: "Christmas time is for children and gifts to be given. You took their innocence, and that can't be forgiven. You scared them into silence, their souls you did twist, and above all, told them I didn't exist. For your life-long naughtiness, the piper must be paid."
  • The protagonist in "Lauren and Lucy" more-or-less gives one towards his parents when he tries to justify that he didn't kill his younger sister Lauren: "[I tried to explain] I didn't do it, and that it was all Lucy's fault, and their fault for selling their soul to Lucifer in the first place.
  • "Speak up! (...) If you were saying something kind, you wouldn't need to whisper!(...) Why do you need to hide your face behind a computer screen?" Said by Chris to Ryan in "Whispers that Bite".
  • Eva from "Hunted on the Run" gives this to the Conductor/Vampire Hunter when she pins him for nearly killing Ryan: "We weren't hurting anyone! You and those like you hunt us for what? Because of trumped up stories and stupid bloodthirsty myths? Now, you're ours...
• Rule of Symbolism: In "The Kelpie", Vi's bandaged hand after her grandmother shoots her in order to save her from the titular monster seems to represent her loss of innocence at learning the truth about her father.
  • "Whispers that Bite" does a great job of driving the point home of how words can hurt. The more a person is bothered by other people's words, the more they're covered in mysterious bug bites and scars.
  • "You can't bury the Truth" has a magnet over Lucy's face, as though hinting we don't know her true nature, yet. And when we do learn the plot twist about her, the magnet covering Lucy's face is removed.
• Sanity Slippage: Prenitha in "Lady in the Red Saree". In life, Prenitha was at one point a sane person when she married her husband. But her husband neglected her so much so that the loneliness gnawed at her sanity. Eventually, driven by madness, Prenitha murdered her husband.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In "Feline Fatale", Tequan seems to do this when Abby is at the mercy of the Gakki. ...Averted, when it turns out Tequan left to hunt for prey to feed the Gakki before it was too late.
• Slasher Smile: Mr. Widemouth sports one at all times.
  • Prenitha from "Lady in the Red Saree" has this to indicate that her sanity has long checked out.
  • Karina in "Shadows" possesses one such smile, alerting Phoebe that she's not human... or her now-possessed mother and brothers.
• The Sociopath:
  • The grandmother in "Lady Blanca". She's hardly fit to call a grandmother if she has no qualms about abusing her grandchildren or cursing them with a demon. ...On top of sacrificing a mother cat and her kittens.
  • Dustin from "Julianna". Nothing says "maladjusted kid" like sewing your fellow camper's mouth shut just because he thinks she has a big mouth for speaking up.
• Space Whale Aesop: "Ghost Warriors of Hawaii" teaches not to steal from where you vacation, or local ghosts will haunt and kill you!
  • "Beware la Pisadeira" teaches not to eat too much, especially before going to sleep, or a sleep-paralysis demon will crawl into your bed, give you nightmares and feed on your fear.
  • "The Thirteen Foot Skeleton" teaches that you shouldn't be lazy and to take down your holiday decorations when the holiday in question has passed. ....lest the decorations come alive and kill you!
• Spoiled Brat: The little boy in "El Silbon" was such a spoiled child that he parents never said no to him. This becomes the father's downfall when, unable to fulfill his son's wish of eating deer entrails, his son kills and guts him.
• Stalker with a Crush: "Randall" is a story about a ghost veteran who is stalking a nurse who works in the hospital.
  • Played with in "Stood Up". The bartender Eliot seemingly drives after Tanya, seemingly trying to stalk her. It turns out, he was trying to warn her that there was a stalker in the back of her car, who turns out to be the guy she was waiting for earlier. Zigzagged, as it turns out Eliot is secretly stalking Tanya too.
  • Obadiah Knox in "The Show must go on". He initially strikes Millie as simply being your run of the mill nosy tabloid reporter, but his invasive, unprofessional questions give her red flags that he's obsessed with her.
• Stealth Pun: The title of the episode "Child of the Cliff" sounds like "Child off the Cliff" if said right, almost like it's sharing the premise of the story.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: "Stood Up" ends with Eliot saving Tanya's life. However, just because he saved her from her stalker does not mean she's obligated to go on a date with him. Too bad Eliot refuses to accept this.
  • The modern rendition of "The Red Death" has Prospero invite many "clean" guests to ride out the titular plague in droves. The problem is, some of them bribe their way into his sanctuary. Ultimately, there's an outbreak. no matter how much money or high tech one posseses, nothing is truly airtight, especially when you invite multiple strangers into your home. Also, as opposed to Prospero and his friends, Markeia narrates how the "common folk" will have better chances of survival as long as they stay indoors and minimize their chances of contamination.
• Sympathy for the Devil: In "Krampusnacht", despite that his sister nearly scapegoated him into being punished by Krampus, Murco still feels sorry for him when he sees Nicka sadly accept her punishment.
• Tempting Fate: "I'm very tired and stressed, please don't make things worse." Said by the mother in "The Gruagach" to the protagonist who tries to warn they have to appease the titular fae is they don't want it to take away Amelia. By not listening to her daughters about Tom, the mother soon finds Amelia kidnapped. So indeed, things did get worse.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: "Bloody Samurai Wedding" kicks off with Iaman scheming to murder his faithful wife Oiwa in order to marry another woman. Even though he's (eventually) successful, it only goes as well as you'd expect.
• Toxic Friend Influence: "The Noonwraith" has Sophie, who influences a reluctant Ola to break the rules, which the latter only does because she wants to look cool in front of her friend. She draws the line at smoking alongside Sophie, but it's not enough to avoid the Noonwraith calling her out on her herd mentality.
  • The story of "Final Score" would not happen if Joe and Mike weren't such bad influences on each other. In fact, they're such bad influences that neither of them could hold down a job after high school, thus resorting to thievery and cons.
• The Unfavorite: Desiree feels she's this to her family in "My Family hates me". Averted, as they remain distant because they are afraid of the demon that possesses her, but nonetheless care about her.
  • The protagonist in "Lauren and Lucy". His parents always wanted a daughter and resented their son for being a boy. They took his younger sister Lauren to an amusement park for her sixth birthday, while the protagonist "turned sweet 16 with no fanfare".
• Ungrateful Bastard: The grandmother in "Lady Blanca" is this, and HOW! She's always hated her daughter-in-law and grandchildren for no good reason. Even when they took her in and cared for her, she would repay them by abusing her granddaughters. She would claim to feed them only to leave them hungry for hours, forced them to clean up after her, and called them names until they cried. And it only gets worse when, before leaving, the grandmother secretly curses her family's home with an evil spirit. Gee, how's that for gratitude!
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In "The Thirteen Foot Skeleton", the skeleton decoration might not have gained life of its own from all the months of adulation had Elena's sister not off-handedly suggested keeping the ghastly decoration on the front lawn past Halloween.
  • "You can't bury the Truth" has Lucy's friend Jayda seal her doom the moment she unintentionally invented Lucy's hated nickname that got her mocked through childhood and into highschool. Sean also counts as this, as he most likely didn't intend for Jayda to go missing, but all the same set off Lucy's murder of Jayda by bringing up her hated nickname.
• Vengeful Ghost: Reconstructed in "Killer Threads". Claire is reincarnated as a ghost that lives on in her red dress. And through whoever wears her dress, she can hunt down serial killers who like to kill their dates, just as Ethan killed her. Although the protagonist acknowledges that Claire's mission is more out of revenge than justice, they're nonetheless doing the world a favor to just "take out some of the trash that make [other girls] fearful, the rotten apples".
  • Prenitha from "Woman in the Red Saree". She wants to take revenge on all men who neglect their wives, just as her husband neglected her in life.
• Weakened by the Light: The Shadows in "Misty Mountains of the Dead" lose their power to possess the living whenever they're exposed to a light source.
• Wendigo: There's one in "It used my Mother's Voice". True to the title (and true to their lore) the wendigo imitates the protagonist's mother's voice in an attempt to lure her.
  • Later on, Something Scary tells a story about a similar creature known as a Wechuge.
• Wham Line:
  • "Did you say Cherry Road? This house is on Cherry Lane. What house are you in?"
  • "The media called my dad the Skinner of Stockholm Street."
  • "The character said that the M Show didn't have a fan club."
  • The ending of "Child of the Cliff" has Angela lose her cool when Pastel and Greg bring her to their favorite park as she cries " Please don't throw me over again! I'm pretty now! I came back pretty so you would love me! Don't you love me?
  • "I finally found you, vampire!!" "... Vampire?"
  • This line in "Deadly Delivery" reveals Dylan's true nature as a package theif, and how well-deserved his fate is: "It was a drawing, of that ancient, earthy-smelling jar from yesterday. It had been one of the many packages he had stolen off of porches."
• What You Are in the Dark: In "Child of the Cliff", Pastel and Greg took their baby to Mines View Park to get their minds off their problem of having a disfigured child. They happen to be there before anyone else. Between this and the fact nobody officially knows their baby was born, Greg and Pastel wordlessly take this as an opportunity to drop their unnamed baby off the cliff and start over with a new baby.
  • In "Yuki-Onna", despite his vow years ago to the titular winter spirit, Minokichi finally breaks his silence about meeting the yuki-onna when he shares the story with his children. Unfortunately, he tells it while his wife is sleeping within earshot of him, painfully unaware she was the yuki-onna all along.
  • In "Krampusnacht", Nicka thought that if she could discreetly knock hers and Murko's boots off the window and hide the birch twigs in her boots, she would get away with being naughty this year. Heck, she even intended that Murko take the blame for possessing the birch twigs. Unfortunately for her, Krampus knew all along what she was trying to do.
  • In "La Siquanaba", Alejandro clearly had a chance to turn back when it was a choice between going with Marianna and coming home to his wife and baby. But instead, he's easily tempted into going with Marianna. Later, it's reveald the whole thing was a trap set by Elisa and Marianna to test if he was faithful or if he really was guilty of infidelity.
• Wicked Stepmother: Or "stepfather" in the case of "The Shapeshifting Yaksha". It doesn't get anymore wicked than devouring your stepson and plotting to eat his mother soon after.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • "Hachishakusama" is about a monster that preys upon those it sees (namely children) and causes them to die in a matter of days.
  • "Mr. Widemouth" can be pretty unnerving example of this all its own. It's essentially a story of a stranger of sorts befriending a child, telling them to keep their existence a secret from her parents, and trying to lure the child to their doom.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In "Night at the Drive-Thru", Megan initially had the idea that the couple dressed in black who approached in wanted to rob her, unaware they're actually trying to lay low from their doppelgangers.
• Youkai: Several such as the Slit-Mouth Woman; Hachishakusama; and the Rokurokubi.
• Yuki Onna: The titular creature from "Yuki-Onna". True to the legend, Minokichi never sees his children and wife again, all because he made one mistake.

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