Web Video / Bedtime Stories (YouTube Channel)

Aliens, Conspiracies, Cryptids, Ghosts, Strange Deaths, Mysteries, Other Dimensions...

"Turn off the lights, get into bed and plug in your earphones. It's time for a creepy bedtime story. For the Fortean at heart, we cover anything that is even remotely strange. From the paranormal to the supernatural, unsolved mysteries, strange deaths, conspiracy theories, cryptids and everything in between, all told in a unique and creepy way. Join us every week for a new scary story."

— Description in all of their videos

Bedtime Stories is a YouTube documentary/horror channel centered around the supernatural and paranormal. Aside from the usual ghosts, aliens and the like, the series is also notable for covering several strange disappearances, unexplained deaths and ghastly cases of real crime. Of special note is that they depict their stories through black-and-white artwork that they themselves have created, specifically by one Mikey Turcanu, though in certain cases actual footage such as photographs or videos of the event may also be shown. The episodes are narrated in-house by their writer, Richard While^note initially thought to have been stepping down, with the role temporarily going to one Ash Steel for two episodes.

You can listen to their stories here. Not for the faint of heart. You Have Been Warned. This series is a source of massive Nightmare Fuel. For the faint of heart, go visit their Facebook page here and official website here.

A related and more lighthearted channel, called Wartime Stories, debuted in October 2020, focusing more on wartime scenarios, with the same Deliberately Monochrome artstyle. Another related channel by Simon Andrews, the series' primary writer, named Unclassified Encounter, debuted in April 2021, depicting various supernatural and paranormal encounters during World War II (though other wars sometimes appear). Unlike the other two, which leave it up to the viewer as to whether the stories are true or not, Unclassified Encounter is entirely fictional.

Starting in 2023, While entered into a production partnership with John Allen, alias MrBallen, with the two outfits forming a larger horror production called Ballen Studios.

---

This series contains examples of:

Tropes A-M

• Abandoned Camp Ruins: This is a recurring feature in episodes featuring unexplained disappearances in remote areas such as forests, mountains, and deserts. Often, said campsite ruins would feature destroyed tents, but surprisingly intact supply storages, untouched bags, and no signs of the former inhabitants.
• Abandoned Mine:
  • The Macguffin Location of the episode "There Is Something in the Mountains" is a gold mine known as "The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine" located in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona.
  • "The Kentucky Goblins" two-parter features a number of abandoned mines in rural Kentucky, some of which are rumored to be the location of an alien Elaborate Underground Base.
• Abusive Parents: The Wests, on top of being Serial Killers, also frequently abused their children, physically, emotionally, and sometimes, sexually.
• Ace Pilot: Lt. Charles Taylor, the leader of Flight 19, who served two tours of duty in the Pacific During the War. Unfortunately, like so many other experts in their field, he goes down just as easily as the rest of his flight.
• Accidental Truth: "Vanished Without A Trace" acknowledged how the the people of Nome, Alaska sued Universal over their movie The Fourth Kind, which claimed to be based on real life disappearances in the town and claim they were done by aliens, with recordings to prove it. While they eventually came clean and admitted the disappearances and supposed abductions were a lie, this did open up to the possibility some disappearances were indeed done by extraterrestrials.
• Action Prologue: "The Entity of Tsarichina" opens with a fierce firefight between the Bulgarian Army and the aforementioned entity, and the humans' later retreat from the underground site.
• Alien Abduction:
  • Implied to have been how at least three of the mysterious deaths covered (from "The Strange Death of Zigmund Adamski", "The Body on the Reservoir", and "The Strange Death of Jonathan Lovette" respectively) were caused, due to the nature of their corpses (specifically surgical-grade incisions, the clean draining of blood, clean removal of organs, and placement of a weird ointment in said cases).
  • One of the fringe theories on the fate of Flight 19, where theorists claim that they were chased by UFOs late into their flight, as well as the Dyatlov Pass Incident. However, there is no further evidence to support these claims.
  • Happens to Elizabeth Murray in "The Trucker's Wife", where, thanks to hypnotherapy, she recalls being taken from her backyard, experimented upon and then healed by unknown beings, and then eventually committing suicide out of being traumatized from the entire ordeal.
• Aliens Are Bastards: A few of the extraterrestrials encountered are not of the benevolent kind.
  • "The Body on the Reservoir" suggests the fate of the unfortunate man was a result of aliens performing painful and intrusive experiments on him. There's even a slow zoom in on a painting of three menacing looking aliens looking down at the viewer, likely from the perspective of the man in question.
  • "Intruders" has Stardust Ranch being tormented by aliens who were far more malicious than those of Skinwalker Ranch.
  • If it was indeed an alien ship responsible in "The Burning Man of Brazil", then them causing the poor man a slow death rather than abducting him was outright cruel.
  • "Enemy Unknown" deals with alien spacecraft in the Vietnam War attacking both sides, torching a Vietcong base, sinking boats and crashing American aircraft.
  • "There is Something on The Moon" explores the idea there are hostile aliens living on the moon. One example being the sign that Russian Cosmonauts were bludgeoned to death by something large and powerful.
  • The Warminster Thing is a purported UFO that was responsible for sonic attacks on the people on the town for no defined reason.
• Aliens in Cardiff: A staple of the series, with extraordinary events in mundane locations:
  • "The Entity Of Tsarichina" is about a military operation that discovered an underground Immune to Bullets Eldritch Abomination after months of being plagued by UFOs, equipment failures and aliens... in a small and obscure Bulgarian village.
  • "The Alien of Varginha" about aliens and The Men in Black being spotted throughout a then-unremarkable Brazilian rural town
    • Brazil is something of a go-to place for alien-associated weirdness on this channel, with other examples including "The lead Masks of Vintém Hill", "The Burning Man Of Brazil" and "The Body On The Reservoir"
  • "The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Mystery" discusses the Stock Unsolved Mystery of a group of lighthouse keepers on the west coast of Scotland vanishing
  • "Intruders" deals with a group of particularly cruel aliens stalking and harassing a couple near Phoenix, Arizona
  • Point Pleasant, a West Virginia town of a few hundred people appears in two episodes, discussing The Mothman and the Grinning Man
• Aliens Steal Cattle:
  • "Tales from Skinwalker Ranch, Part One" makes heavy implications that the strange phenomena occuring on the titular ranch has something to do with the disappearances of random cattle, although unlike most examples this happens mostly offscreen. Instead, what is shown are numerous cattle mutilations that take place in broad daylight.
  • "Intruders" shows that aliens also aren't limited to attacking cattle either, as several of the horses that John and Joyce Edmonds are taking care of are mutilated by the titular unseen intruders.
• The Alleged Car:
  • Plane in this case, specifically the DC-10 airliner, in "The Nightmare".
  • There's also the Martin PBM Mariner in "The Disappearance of Flight 19", which is noted to catch engine and fuel-related fires on long-range flights.
• Almost Dead Guy: Albert Petka from "There is Something in the Forest", who is mortally wounded by a Bigfoot-esque creature and then left for dead in his houseboat. He manages to survive long enough to be found by Port Chatham residents and relay his story to them before eventually dying from his injuries.
• Alternate Universe: Discussed in at least two videos, "The Mandela Effect", and "The Man from Taured".
• Always a Bigger Fish: A great white shark is the victim of an unknown, much larger, predator, based on how the temperature readings on its recovered tag read out.
• Ambiguous Gender: Due to a feminine physique and the presence of high-heeled bootprints, it's suggested the Mad Gasser may have been a woman.
• Ambiguously Evil: The gaunt-faced figure the two children from the second story of "The Near Missing 411: Part One". It lured the two children away from their house and deeper into the woods. However, once the two realized how far they were and returned home, it did not pursue them any further, nor did it seem to have issue with them not following it anymore.
• Ambiguously Gay: Brought up as a theory that Cindy James may have been a closet lesbian and struggling with her sexuality.
• Ambiguously Human: A few examples pop up.
  • The titular Baby Aleshenka from the video of the same name, as witnesses who saw the baby could not determine for certain whether he was human at all, or an alien being.
  • Some witnesses who have encountered suspected members of The Men in Black suspect that they aren't entirely human, due to their lack of hair or lips. The Men in Black featured in "Highways of Horror" are even less human looking, with their impossibly thin bodies, being able to stand motionlessly and walking as if they couldn't stand upright. For this, it's implied they may have been corpses reanimated by alien intelligences.
  • The Black-Eyed children from the episode of the same name, with their silver hair and black eyes.
  • The titular being of "The Gurning Man of Glasgow", who is either some deformed human whose supposed disappearing is a result of people misremembering from the trauma of seeing him, a spectral being, or a dimension traveler. Comparisons to the Grinning Man are also brought up.
  • The barking man from the second tale in "Highways of Horror", whose face contorted to give the exact impression of a dog barking and disappeared as soon as the truck driver tried to film him.
  • The Silver Man of "The Mysterious Risley Encounter", who walked in a Frankenstein's Monster manner with legs straightened and arms sticking out forward. The possibility it was a man in a protective suit was suggested, though Ken Edwards states the suit and attempts to recreate the event did not match the creature he saw.
  • The titular entity of "The Alabama Metal Man". Was it a robot/alien or just some kid in a costume. The fact that the UFO network MUFON insisted what Chief Greenhaw saw was not an alien suggests just that, but his claims that it outran his truck at over 40 mph isn't something physically possible, tinfoil suit or not tinfoil suit.
• Ambiguous Robots: The figures the unnamed child in the first story of "The Near Missing 411 Part Two" looked human but stood still like robots. The being resembling his grandmother, which may or may not have done something to the real thing days prior to this incident, flickered from looking like her and something metallic under her skin.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • The identities of both Dr. David Christie and Terry Wriste from "The Kentucky Goblins" two-parter. Whether or not they were genuine or a clever prank, albeit the latter having been aware of Greg Newkirk's private adventure to a cave was a bit of a shock and his knowledge about his looking into the events of Hellier. The possibility that all the e-mails were sent by the same person was brought up, especially since David was suggested to using a VPN when tracking his e-mail lead to Canada and not Kentucky.
  • Brought up in "Our Lady of Fatima". While a hoax or tricks to the mind are suggested, it's also theorized the woman who appeared to the children wasn't the real virgin Mary, but an alien disguised as her.
  • "Mystery of the High Country", whether or not the Button Man is the one responsible for the disappearances or if he was just passing by.
  • "The Legend of the Dover Demon" raises questions on just what the titular creature was. While it greatly resembles an alien, the fact that no UFO was ever seen near the town of Dover during the events of that night and that the creature never attempted to make contact with others suggests it's not extraterrestrial in origin. There's also a suggestion, given when and where each of the three sightings took place that suggest it was traveling, the creature is not connected to the town of Dover and was just passing by.
• Ancient Astronauts: One possible theory on how possible human bones ended up in Mars in "Bones on Mars".
• Ancient Evil:
  • "The Entity of Tsarichina" is believed to be a malevolent creature. Whether an Eldritch Abomination or some kind of alien lifeform, anyone who came in close contact with where it is sealed away suffered.
  • The Elemental from "Phantoms of Leap Castle" is a humanoid creature of unknown origin that, while not outright attacking people, its appearance and presence is terrifying.
• Animalistic Abomination:
  • "Tales from Skinwalker Ranch, Part One" has a gigantic wolf that appears in front of the Sherman family. It's apparently Immune to Bullets^note although apparently one piece was shot off of it, but upon further inspection it was old and rotten, and disappears without a trace when the Shermans try to chase it after it attacks one of their cattle.
  • The titular "Nameless Horror of Berkeley Square" is a small, cephalopod-like creature that stalks and kills anyone staying in the titular residence at night.
• Art Evolution: As of Season 5, artwork is depicted more realistically, with more details on human characters, in particular their faces. In addition, there are minor animated sequences, such as the waving of flashlights.
• Art Shift: The Disappearance of the Nanjing Battalion has a one-off art style making the visuals appear more like ink on paper, complete with characters being drawn or erased whenever they appear and disappear onscreen.
  • "Creatures of April Falls" harkens back to the art style of the first videos, with little intimate detail to the surroundings and characters of the eponymous town. It’s a parody of the channel’s normal material, meant as an April Fools’ Day joke.
• Ax-Crazy: Paul Mueller, "The Man From The Train", is an example, having murdered numerous American families with axes and other farming tools he could get his hands on.
• Bat Out of Hell: The Van Meter Visitor was a large creature that resembled a bat or pterosaur, which attacked the town of the same name in Iowa.
• Bermuda Triangle: The setting of "The Mysterious Disappearance of Flight 19", which is in fact the first notable disappearance taking place in the area.
• Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts: The entire premise of the episode "The Uniondale Hitchhiker", where the ghost of a woman named Maria Roux is often picked up by random drivers and motorcyclists, only for her to disappear as suddenly as she got onto their cars and bikes. Several other examples of this phenomenon are also discussed, with the hitchhikers ranging from old women to young boys.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti:
  • Implied in "There is Something in the Woods", where several individuals are alleged to have been taken by, among other things, Bigfoot-like creatures living deep in the National Parks on the US and Canada.
  • "There is Something in the Forest" features the Nantinaq, giant, apelike humanoid creatures that live deep in the Alaskan wilderness, and kill any humans venturing into the woods should they be encountered.
  • The majority of "Enemy Unseen" dealt with alleged encounters with the Vietnam variation of ape men, the Rock Apes, which were said to be violent and indiscriminately attacked soldiers on both sides.
  • "Nightshift" features a huge Sasquatch-like ghost haunting a beer factory.
  • "The Battle of Ape Canyon" details miners in a battle for survival against gorilla-like monsters that they called Mountain Devils, which the Native Americans once knew as the Seeahtik tribe. Along with their large size, hairy bodies and inhuman strength, they were also said to possess magic, being able to hypnotize their victims or make their victims will themselves to death.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Wests, though this applies more to Fred and Rosemary than to any of their children.
• Bittersweet Ending: The tale of "The Beast of Gévaudan" ends when the titular monster is finally brought down. Though over 100 people died by the creature by the time it's killed, it's the closest to a happy ending these videos have offered.
• Black Eyes of Evil: The Black-Eyed Children, mysterious beings that resemble human children, that are known to give people headaches and other physical and mental disturbances just by looking into their eyes.
  • The creature summoned by Lucas Villa in "The Evil Within", which has not only black eyes, but is entirely black.
  • Michael Taylor's Nightmare Face in the ending of "The Devil Made Me Do It", which has black eyes indicating Demonic Possession.
  • "The Legend of the Bell Witch": The Wicked Witch, likely meant to be the Bell Witch herself, is seen smiling evilly at the viewer over her shoulder with dark eyes.
• The Blank: It's revealed during some of the later encounters with the ghostly monk from Stocksbridge Bypass, that not only is he The Faceless, but he literally has no face or even a head underneath his cloak.
  • The introduction for "The Grinning Man" is initially depicted with a blank face, before morphing into the malicious Slasher Smile it's known for.
  • One of the ghosts covered in "Ghosts of the London Underground" is a faceless blonde woman in a dress.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Discussed with regards to The Greys, in that due to their status as aliens, they have zero idea that the experiments they pull off on abducted humans can be painful and even fatal. Case in point, the markings found on Zigmund Adamski's body, as well as the Brazilian Reservoir body's surgical scars, clearly show signs of surgeons having little or no prior knowledge on human anatomy, complete with attempts to heal and/or revive their victims.
• Body Horror:
  • The fate of Elisa Lam's body, which in addition to being Nightmare Fuel in and of itself is also bone-chilling squick.
  • The Dyatlov Pass hiker's bodies as well, which all show signs of heavy bruising and mangling one way or another.
  • The titular "Body on the Reservoir", where the victim's corpse showed signs of an excruciating death, and numerous weird surgical markings uncharacteristic of medical professionals.
  • The titular "Burning Man of Brazil", after having a mysterious, possibly radioactive, beam of light blasted onto him, has his skin slowly melt off his body, with him eventually losing the sense of touch altogether. Worse, the process of his skin melting off is shown in graphic detail. Thankfully, he died peacefully and painlessly.
• Bolivian Army Ending: The creators' depict the titular "Mysterious Disappearance of Flight 19" as this, with the Avenger torpedo bombers flying off into the sunset, never to be seen again.
• Brown Note: The script for a film known as "Atuk", which is said to have been responsible for the deaths of 6 celebrities, including John Belushi and John Candy, simply from them reading it.
  • Celle Neus Rathaus ^note  The town hall of the German town of Celle, where the SS allegedly conducted occult experiments is an alleged Brown Note Building. Of the three divers sent to its flooded depths, only one survived, who came back gibbering about mutilated corpses and pentagrams on the walls, and many of the soldiers who stayed there became depressed and/or saw ghosts.
• Canon Character All Along: Greg Newkirk believes the "Bald Kids" who supposedly terrorized the man who went by David Christie are the Kentucky Goblins who reportedly harassed the Sutton family of the Kelly-Hopkinsville incident. It's thought they wore helmets that made up for their differences, like the giant ears.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In the Mothman episode, a mysterious, otherworldly man by the name of Indrid Cold is mentioned. Come Season 4, we find out more about him in "The Grinning Man".
• Collective Identity: One theory regarding the titular Mad Gasser of Mattoon is that there were actually several men and women terrorizing the town of the same name wearing the same costume.
• Cool Old Lady: While the story of "The Baby Aleshenka" has no happy ending, one could at least take comfort the old woman took in a creature that others would have rejected and raised it as her own child.
• The Conspiracy: The titular "Smiley Face Killers" is said to be a group of Serial Killers who randomly abduct and kill young men. And like most conspiracies, they're able to conceal their activities to the point that authorities are either in on it or simply don't believe they exist.
• Creepy Child: The ghost children in "The Ghosts of Stocksbridge Bypass" and the black-eyed kids.
• Creepy Doll: "The Devil in the Doll" tells the story of William, Mandy and Leta, three dolls alleged possessed by spirits, with the illustrations capturing their creepy appearances.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: How victims in this series are usually killed.
• Cryptid Episode:
  • One that covers the story of the Mothman, a Winged Humanoid creature that terrorized Point Pleasant, West Virginia for an entire year.
    • A similar creature, known simply as the Blackbird of Chernobyl, is covered in the episode of the same name. The creators leave it ambiguous whether this creature and the Mothman are one and the same.
  • "There is Something in the Woods" heavily implies that one of the suspected causes of mysterious disappearances in North American national parks is Bigfoot.
  • "There is Something in the Water" makes a brief mention of the Ningen, a mysterious cryptid with a vaguely humanoid shape, said to be found in the waters off Antarctica.
  • "There is Something in the Forest" features the Nantinaq, a giant Sasquatch-esque creature that kills any humans that intrude on its territory.
  • "The Michigan Dogman" chronicles the creature of the same name, as well as briefly acknowledging the Beast of Bray Road.
• Curse: Quite a few.
  • "The Curse of Carl Pruitt's grave", where anyone who tampers with the man's grave is said to be killed not long after, usually with anything related to chains.
  • One was cast by an allegedly Hot Witch to Chris Case, who died within a week of it being cast.
  • "The Curse of Atuk", a screenplay for a film adaptation of the 1963 satrical novel, "The Incomparable Atuk" which supposedly lead to the untimely deaths of 5 comedic actors (the last being a murder-suicide) and 1 screenwriter before being shelved for good.
• Danger Takes A Back Seat: The Faceless monk haunting the Stocksbridge Bypass is said to stalk drivers passing through said bypass on occasion.
• Dark Is Evil:
  • The creature conjured by Lucas Villa is described as being black, and very evil, to the point of pulling off a Demonic Possession on him at one point.
  • The titular entities from "Who are the Shadow People?", with each purported encounter featuring someone either being terrorized or witnessing these entities causing harm.
  • "The Demons on the Fringe" depicts dark demonic entities that harass people in hospitals, with one seemingly causing an old woman's death.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The giant wolf from Tales Of Skinwalker Ranch: Part One is a Downplayed example, as while it snatches one of the calves for a meal, it’s also not malevolent towards the owners of said ranch, even letting them come up to it and pet it.
• Dateless Grave: The grave of the unknown pilot in "The Mystery of Aurora", which only has the crude drawing of a UFO on it, since nobody could identify if the pilot was human or alien.
• Death of a Child: As shown in several episodes, children are shown to be just as vulnerable a target as teenagers and adults to the paranormal and unexplained. An example in "What Killed Olivia Mabel?", the death of the titular character's 7-year old son is the motivation that apparently drives her into eventual suicide.
• Defictionalization: "The Michigan Dogman" notes that after "The Legend Of The Dogman" was broadcast, people started sighting the titular creature, turning a prank into a real folktale.
• Deliberate Monochrome: How all their illustrations are done. It just adds additional Nightmare Fuel into the bone-chilling narrations. The only time things aren't in black-and-white is when the video features actual footage or photos, or when blood or glowing red eyes are depicted, which remains in dark red.
• Demonic Possession: The topic of the episode "The Devil Made Me Do It", where a British man by the name of Michael Taylor is said to have been possessed by 40 demons. While priests were able to exorcize 37 of those demons, they were unable to remove the remaining 3, which would have disastrous repurcussions later on...
  • Happens again in "The Evil Within", where a Mexican boy named Lucas Villa is tormented by a black figure for several months, often experiencing blackouts, and doing things he wouldn't normally do, such as torturing animals. It gets so bad that he eventually agrees on having an exorcism done on him.
• Desert Warfare: "There is Something in the Desert" focuses on the War in Afghanistan, specifically the supernatural encounters by US Army soldiers and Marines stationed there in the early-mid 2000s.
• Dimensional Traveler:
  • The titular Man From Taured, a rather unwitting one who was detained by Japanese authorities at Haneda Airport before apparently returning to his home dimension.
  • Witting examples, in this case allegedly extraterrestrial beings, are seen teleporting out of mysterious holes thought to be from another world or dimension.
• Dirty Coward: The Wolf of Allendale, the creature apparently bound to the Hexham Heads, would terrify and potentially attack people, only to disappear as soon as it is spotted.
• Distress Call: An ominous one is sent by the SS Ourang Medan, ending with "I die..." from the Communications Officer. Naturally, this causes concern for the relay stations picking up this call, so they ask any ships within the Strait of Malacca to look for the ship.
• Don't Go Into the Woods:
  • Unless you want to disappear or die in a mysterious way, don't ever go in there. There's been more than one mysterious disappearance within American and Canadian National Parks in recent years. Ironically, the narrator tells you that despite these cases, they state that this should not discourage anyone from exploring the wilderness, albeit warning viewers to always be prepared for anything.
  • "There is Something in the Forest" has this as a major theme as well, with several experienced hunters, factory workers, loggers, and outdoorsmen being killed by Sasquatch-like creatures that live deep in the Alaskan woodlands.
• Doppelgänger: One episode focuses on the Doppelganger phenomenon, with one of the more famous historical examples mentioned.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: When a Special Forces Team is attacked and their leader killed by the Kandahar Giant, they manage to kill the Humanoid Abomination by emptying their guns into the creature.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: A particularly, and literally, nightmarish example in "The Nightmare", where a man dreamed, for a full week and in extraordinary detail, the crash of an American Airlines DC-10, later revealed to be the infamous Flight 191, in a swamp.
• Driven to Suicide: Quite a number of examples given the overall theme of the series.
  • Elizabeth Murray, in a fit of despair, shoots herself following her abduction by aliens.
  • Cindy James, at least according to the Canadian authorities, is suspected to have committed suicide due to her deteriorating mental state.
• Dug Too Deep: The Bulgarian Army definitely did when they found the Entity of Tsarichina, triggering several UFO and alien encounters in the nearby areas, not to mention awakening the aforementioned Eldritch Abomination, with it immediately going on a rampage on any soldiers or civilians nearby. Had it not been for the Army engineers blowing up the cave they found the creature in, it most likely would have wreaked havoc on the surface.
• Elaborate Underground Base:
  • The M-shaped cave discovered by Kenny Veach is heavily implied to be either the entrance to a top-secret US Air Force base, or an alien base.
  • Numerous abandoned mines in Kentucky are rumored to house underground bases for The Greys residing there.
  • "Evil Under the Ice" states the possibility of Nazi remnants constructing remote underground outposts and bases in Antarctica in order to hide from the victorious Western Allies and Soviets.
  • The series had a two-parter revolving the alleged Dulce Base, said to be under the Archuleta Mesa near the town of the same name. Episode one detailed various incidents involving aliens, cattle mutilations, theories and alleged testimony surrounding the base. Episode two dealt with the testimony of Phil Schneider, who claims to have been part of a secret war between humans and aliens before an uneasy peace led to the formation of the base and his refusal to stay quiet may have led to his death.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: "Enemy Unknown" features several elite US military units like the Green Berets and US Army Rangers.
• Enfante Terrible: The Black-Eyed Children, who are known to cause mental and physical breakdowns in people whenever they stare into their pitch-black eyes.
• Eldritch Abomination: Quite a few.
  • "There is Something in the Woods" has "The Silence", a seemingly formless, shadowy entity that is allegedly responsible for a series of mysterious killings and/or disappearances in American national parks and forests.
  • The true form of the Humanoid Abomination that terrorized Lucas Villa turns out to be this, which in this case is revealed to be a black puddle with a sickening face.
  • The titular "Nameless Horror of Berkeley Square" is a mass of tentacles which kills anyone unfortunate enough to be staying in the titular place for the night.
  • The titular "Entity of Tsarichina" is heavily implied to be this, said to have existed before mankind and lures human in an attempt to be set free.
• Everyone Has Standards: From "The Legend of the Bell Witch", Andrew Jackson was so terrified from the Bell Witch that he and his men left after one night despite wanting to stay with the Bells for a week. Bare in mind, Andrew Jackson was a slaver, a psychopath and a war criminal who attempted genocide of Native Americans. The fact that something could scare even him into leaving should make it clear the Bell Witch is not something to mess with.
• Evil-Detecting Dog:
  • In "The Monster of Morbach", the guard dogs refused to go anywhere near where the titular werewolf was spotted, almost as if they could sense how evil and dangerous they were.
  • The second story of "Highways of Horror Novis et Tenebris" featured a story by a subscriber the narrator refers to as Donna. Her dogs, who normally fight with each other, all sat together in the front passenger seat and growled quietly at a presumed ghost in the back.
  • An Evil Detecting Cat variation. In "The Horrifying Hexham Heads", the teenage Bernice's cat, who was normally very harmless and loving, was on edge and unusually hostile in the presence of the monster.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: The ranch owners of the what was referred to as "Clearview" from the episode of the same name were intentionally using the mysterious entities' dislike of certain metals to make them do things to scare nonbelievers. One time, however, instead of doing something like levitating objects or the like, the lights were shut off a metallic sounding voice warned them the dangers of intentionally provoking them for a laugh.
• Evil Laugh: The Warminster Thing was said to make a sound similar to a demon laughing.
• Evil Old Folks: "Nightshift" features a guard encountering an angry ghost of an old woman in white.
• Face Death with Dignity: Chris Case, who eventually becomes resigned at the fact that the curse the mysterious woman casted on him will soon take his life.
• The Faceless: The ghostly monk infamous for haunting the Stocksbridge Bypass, who, in this case, has no face underneath his cloak.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Rudolph Fentz, who was apparently transported 75 years into the future. Unfortunately, he died just after being transported to 1951, in this case by a speeding car.
• Floating Limbs: The titular hands of "The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor", with no body present.
• Four Is Death: The episode "Four Submarines" has four different subs that mysteriously vanish.
• Ghostapo: Mentioned in "Secrets of Celle Neues Rathaus; a Nazi Occult Tale?", where one theory goes that the SS, under Himmler's orders, used the titular building for experiments into the occult, and that they had flooded the basement floors to hide whatever monstrosities were created down there. And all of this quite possibly involved torturing Jewish prisoners from the nearby concentration camps.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: From "The Ariel School Incident", after spotting the children, whose POV is for the audience, the alien quickly fades in facing the viewer, glaring at them as the supposed visions of the dystopian future being played with it. It almost look like the alien is sending the warning to us rather than the children.
• Ghost Ship: The Ourang Medan from the episode of the same name.
• Giant Spider: The J'ba Fofi, a breed of large and venomous spiders from the African Congo that prey on humans, is the main focus of "The Lurking Horror."
• Go Mad from the Revelation: How some people take being exposed to paranormal or supernatural events.
  • The US Navy diver from "Secrets of Celle Neues Rathaus", who was suffering a two-hour long panic attack after seeing what kind of experiments the SS did within the hall's flooded rooms. And suffice to say, he was never the same after that, to the point he was discharged from the Navy not long after the incident.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: "The Misery of the Myrtles Plantation" tells the story of one of its ghosts, Chloe, who poisoned a birthday cake to murder her master after he cut her ear off. In a cruel twist of fate, he was the only person who didn't eat the cake and both his wife and children died. The re-uploaded version adds an alternative story that Chloe poisoned the cake as a means of nursing the family back to health to prove her worth to them and keep her job, but the sickness was too much. Regardless of what happened, her plan did not work out how she wanted it to.
• Gonk: Paul Mueller, as described in the narrator's own words, possessed "notoriously poor looks".
• Government Conspiracy: One recurring theme in their videos, particularly if it involves anything related to The Men in Black, aliens, or top-secret military experiments.
• The Greys: The most commonly depicted suspects of any Alien Abduction shown in the series, or aliens in general.
• Haunted Headquarters:
  • Stocksbridge Bypass, a haunted road.
  • A literal example appears in "Secrets of Celle Neues Rathaus", where the titular hall was used as a barracks for British and German forces during the Cold War. It's heavily implied that the SS did something in the basement floors of the building to attract this sort of negative energy.
  • The house in the titular San Pedro Haunting, as well as, for a short time, a mobile home.
  • Borley Rectory, which earned the title of "England's most haunted house".
  • Berkeley Square is haunted by the ghost of several women who died there hundreds of years ago, though interestingly they're far from being a real threat compared to the Eldritch Abomination also living there.
  • The Hoosac Tunnel, which is rife with the ghosts of the many workers killed during its construction.
• Haunted Technology:
  • The infamous Little Bastard belonging to James Dean, which includes all of its parts.
  • "The Curse of the Golden Eagle" deals with the titular vehicle, which was said to be the inspiration for the novel Christine. Ironically, when owned by the fire department, it showed no indication of being evil.
• Healing Factor: Many supernatural creatures, such as the Beast of Gévaudan, are said to be able to heal from injuries.
• Hearing Voices: Several examples throughout the series, including Chris Case hearing unexplained whispering in his home, and soldiers stationed at the Celle Neues Rathaus hearing voices speaking in German in empty rooms.
• He Knows Too Much: Heavily implied in "Intruders", where a biologist that John Edmonds had contacted and given alien tissue and blood samples is mysteriously killed only weeks after making a scientific breakthrough with said samples. In addition, his lab is burned to the ground, with all of his work destroyed. And finally, the biologist's wife, for whatever reason, mysteriously dies not long after him.
• Hilarious Outtakes: Since the Personal Experience video of writer Simon Andrews, some videos will end on a silly blooper of either a flubbed line or Richard practicing accents with a comical phrase like "stick around... we're havin' chicken noodle soup" in a Scottish accent.
• History Repeats: A group of friends go out on a trip in the month of February, and end up all dying under mysterious circumstances in the midst of harsh winter conditions out in the mountains. Are we talking about the Dyatlov Pass Incident or the Boys from Yuba City?
• Hollywood Exorcism: How the botched exorcism of Michael Taylor is depicted, with three priests holding crosses while the victim was writhing in violent pain.
  • Another one happens in "The Evil Within", where a Mexican boy named Lucas Villa is possessed by a malevolent Humanoid Abomination. Fortunately, this one is far more successful.
• Hot Witch: The woman whom Chris Case met a week prior to his death was stated to be very attractive, and later revealed to the young man that she was a witch.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: For all the supernatural and paranormal threats shown throughout the series, the three very much human serial killers, Fred and Rose West, and later, Paul Mueller, are shown to be much worse than any ghost or demon, having a far higher bodycount than even the demons that possessed Michael Taylor. The former is even Lampshaded by the narrator.
• Humanoid Abomination: Several cases are shown, but most notably several of The Men in Black and the Black-eyed Children they're rumored to be associated with. This is mainly due to their apparent ability to cause discomfort, both physical and mental, on people, as well as their general Uncanny Valley nature in trying to mimic actual human behavior.
  • The Mothman, said to be a humanoid-shaped figure with wings, glowing red eyes, and emitted a blood-curdling scream.
  • The Grinning Man, aka Indrid Cold, a tall, humanoid figure with a deeply malicious smile, and said to be related to the Mothman.
  • "Secrets of Celle Neues Rathaus" heavily implies that the SS created several of these monstrosities within the basement of the titular building, and that they flooded the entire basement to keep said creations trapped in there.
  • "There is Something in the Woods", one of the many strange creatures seen is some kind of human-bear hybrid that seemingly kidnaps people and is responsible for disappearances.
  • In "The Evil Within", there's this mysterious black figure summoned as a result of an Ouija Board ritual. It ends up inflicting nightmares on a Mexican boy named Lucas Villa, eventually pulling off a Demonic Possession that induces random blackouts on him, and makes him do increasingly barbaric actions.
  • The Kandahar Giant, a massive 12-foot creature encountered by US forces in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, which is said to have wiped out a platoon of US soldiers as well as the leader of a US special forces team.
  • From the same video that brought the Kandahar Giant, there was also the thing that massacred a group of Taliban insurgents in a nearby village that happened to catch its attention. It looked like an elderly Afghan man dressed in white robes, but a deafening buzzing noise is let off in its presence, it doesn’t give off any detectable body heat, causes electronic equipment to go funny, hovered off the ground, had luminous, unblinking red eyes and had one of its limbs drop off, only to reattach it with zero issue whatsoever.
  • "Terror From The Sky" gives us the flying humanoids of Central America. It is unknown whether they are aliens, demons, cryptids or witches (the latter being the more popular theory) all that is known is that they are ugly creatures that fly without wings of any kind who are known to be less than amiable towards people who encounter them.
  • Aswangs are creatures that can pass off as human during the daytime, but at night, it assumes a monstrous form, has red eyes, can transform into a variety of animals, and feeds on the blood of helpless victims.
  • "The Horrors of the Chase" part 1 features a red-eyed entity resembling Slender Man that haunts Cannock Chase and attacks people that it comes across. Its origins are unknown, though it predates the creeppasta it resembles.
• Humanoid Aliens: Quite a few examples, which often overlap with Humanoid Abomination due to how mysterious these beings are.
  • The Grinning Man, aka Indrid Cold, was first said to have been seen emerging from a mysterious, otherworldly craft, communicating to a man telepathically, and often being seen before an Alien Abduction.
  • The Mothman itself is argued to be of otherworldly origin.
• Hungry Jungle: "The Lost Girls of Panama" depicts the Panamanian jungle as really hostile territory, with several noted disappearances in recent years, not unlike the missing 411 cases in the US national parks.
• Immune to Bullets: Creatures like the alleged skinwalker in "Tales of Skinwalker Ranch" and the aliens in "The Kentucky Goblins" are established as being practically unaffected by small-arms fire, whether it be a small .22 caliber rifle, 12-gauge buckshot, or even .44 magnum. The titular "Entity of Tsarichina" is not only immune to them, but can even reflect any bullets fired at it back to the soldiers who fired them.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: A list of southeast Asian monsters in "The Curse of the Dab Tsog" consists of the Hmong Dab Tsog, the Penangalannan from Malaysian Mythology and the Manananggal from Philippine Mythology.
• In the Hood:
  • The Wicked Witch from "Legend of the Bell Witch" is shown wearing one.
  • While there is no records of them wearing one, the artist gives the Mad Gasser one to emphasize the danger and mystery they bring.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: "The Lair of the Wendigo" opens with the narrator reciting a wendigo-themed variant of "Teddy Bears' Picnic".
  ''If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise.
  If you go down to the woods today, you'd better go in disguise.
  For when the ground is cold and covered in snow
  you'll find yourself in the lair of the Wendigo...
• It Kind of Looks Like a Face: "For Those In Peril" mentions one story of the faces of two deceased crewmen appearing in the water behind the ship where they died until the cargo it carried was delivered. Although the artwork of two faces is superimposed atop the animation of water flowing, the actual picture depicts what looks like water taking the shape of faces. This could just be a coincidence caused by pareidolia, or their ghosts really were following them from waters.
• It's All My Fault: David Booth blamed himself for the disastrous crash of American Airlines Flight 191, believing 273 people died because of his failure to act on his prophetic dream.
• Jump Scare: The show's creators love doing this with brief stillshots of mangled corpses over details of someone's death.
• Jungle Warfare:
  • "Enemy Unknown" focuses on the paranormal encounters and experiences of American forces during The Vietnam War.
  • "The Disappearance of the Nanjing Battalion" features the landings at Ramree Island of the coast of Burma, where Japanese Army troops are killed by saltwater crocodiles and mysterious humanoid creatures, all while British forces can hear it happening.
• Just Plane Wrong: A TBM Avenger is shown as part of the Soviet Air Force during the Dyatlov Pass two parter. The plane was never given to the Soviets as part of the Lend-Lease program during World War II, much less being used by operational squadrons in the Urals in the 1950s. The show's creators admit that the reason for this was that the image in question was intended for an episode on Flight 19, but was put on hiatus due to ongoing research on the topic.
  • Downplayed case in the Flight 19 episode when it did finally come out. In one panel, a TBM Avenger is shown having the mid-war US roundel as opposed to the late-war roundel which had two white sidebars on the circle. Otherwise, the depictions of both the other Avengers shown, as well as the PBM Mariner, are correct.
• Karma Houdini:
  • The witch who cursed Christopher Case was never named, as he never gave it to anyone, meaning she got away with his death.
  • Paul Mueller, the infamous "Man From The Train", managed to avoid police custody every time he butchered families, thanks in part to remaining obscure and not bragging about his kills during his rampage across the US.
  • The killer responsible for "The Mysterious Setagaya Murders" is still to this day uncaught.
• Killed Offscreen: The vast majority of victims depicted are only shown after they've been killed by whatever or whoever attacked them.
• Leaking Can of Evil: Despite the basement section of Celle Neues Rathaus being flooded by the SS and then sealed off by the British Army, there's been recorded paranormal activity persisting in the area for decades beyond that. It probably doesen't help that the Rathaus was located near concentration camps where Jewish prisoners were kept.
• Lifesaving Misfortune: Yuri Yudin, one of the Dyatlov Pass hikers. Midway into their hike, his health began to decline, and he was eventually forced to head back. This saved his life, considering what happened to the rest of his friends not long after...
• Light Is Not Good: The "thing" encountered by a US special forces team in Afghanistan is dressed in all-white clothing, and is shown to be a malevolent being with glowing red eyes when it massacres an entire Taliban unit.
• Living Shadow: The Shadow People from the episode of the same name, who are said to be all-black malevolent entities that stalk people in the dead of night, sometimes bringing upon their witnesses certain doom.
• The Mafia: The most heavily suspected perpetrators of the burning of the Sodder residence are a group of Mafia enforcers, who may or may not have also kidnapped the latter's 5 oldest children as well.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The titular Mad Gasser of Mattoon wears a gas mask. A good minute of the video has a close up of the figure looking towards the viewer, with smoke of some kind released from the mask, and glowing eyes. One theory even implies that the Mad Gasser isn't one person, but an entire group of men and women working together for an unspecified goal.
• Manchild: The Boys from Yuba City, young men in their 20s and 30s who, according to their parents, had the minds and innocence of children. This is tragically deconstructed when all five of them are killed/missing upon getting lost in the woods, due to not knowing on how to cope with the situation they were stuck in.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Many of the episodes give both realistic and supernatural explanations for the phenomena discussed.
  • Were the Mothman sightings really of some bizarre unknown creature? Or was it just an unusually large bird?
  • Did Chris Case die of a curse? Or did he somehow scare himself to death?
  • Were the numerous Hmong Americans who died in their sleep for no apparent reason killed by evil spirits known as Dab Tsog, or by cases of sleep paralysis made deadly by factors related to their flight from Laos and life in the United States?
  • Did the Atuk script have a curse that killed six celebrities, or were their deaths after expressing interest in the screenplay just tragic coincidences?
  • Is the Devil's Pool cursed, or are the deaths that happened there merely the result of geological abnormalities?
  • Was UB-65 really a cursed ship that ended up being haunted by the ghost of Lieutenant Richter, or did a series of unfortunate accidents and the stress inherent to being on a military submarine lead to a case of mass hysteria?
  • Was Ryan of The Belfast Crossover seeing a version of him from an alternate reality or his doppelgänger in the video, or did he really somehow just forget that he visited those patients earlier? The fact that the Ryan in the video seemed to intentionally avoid his face being shown on camera is rather suspicious though.
  • Was the titular "Charterhouse Guest" some kind of cryptid or supernatural entity, or did Terry just have a very vivid nightmare? The fact that the house was locked up so nothing could get in or out does suggest the latter. But then, what caused those claw marks?
  • "The Kentucky Goblins" acknowledges the most common explanation given by skeptics on what the supposed aliens were: great-horned owls. However, it's acknowledged with three problems with this: owls do not grow 3 feet like the Goblins did, owls cannot hover over the ground, and finally, and most obvious, owls are not bulletproof and don't make rattling sounds when shot at.
  • "Predators on the Moors" brought up the possibility the titular animals might be hellhounds or other supernatural dogs that have taken on a more feline appearance as opposed to exotic animals that managed to avoid detection.
  • "The Disappearance of the Nanjing Battalion": Assuming the story isn't a cautionary tale, what happened to the titular battalion? Did the Japanese lie about capturing and killing them? Or did some alien or mystical take these men?
• Mêlée à Trois: The supposed UFOs from "Enemy Unknown" become a mysterious third faction in The Vietnam War, attacking both Northern and Southern forces indiscriminately and immediately disappearing afterwards.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Played straight in "Spirits of Devil's Pool", where only men are victims to drowning in the titular lake. The one woman who does end up in the water is somehow rescued by a lifeguard before she ends up under.
• The Men in Black: They get mentioned in their titular episode, where it's theorized that they're aliens and human government agents working together for an unknown agenda. They've also been theorized to be in cahoots with mysterious black-eyed children, who are occasionally seen driving with them in their black cars.
  • One possible interpretation for Indrid Cold, aka "The Grinning Man", is that he's one of the Men In Black, appearing whenever a cryptid, usually the Mothman, makes an appearance.
  • In "Intruders", the owner of Stardust Ranch, one John Edmonds, is approached by two of these men, who wore sunglasses, black fedoras, and emitted a foul odor. They promptly warned him not to divulge information relating to what he encountered to the media, before turning away and disappearing.
• Misplaced Wildlife: The most common explanation for the "Predators of the Moors" is that they are exoitc pets their owners set free to avoid being punished. The fact that large cats have been found with hints they were domesticated suggest this is true.
• The Mothman: The original mothman is covered in the episode "The Legend of the Mothman".
• Motifs: Anyone killed by the Curse of Carl Pruitt's grave is always killed by something relating to chains.
• Mundanger: Quite a few episodes, such as "The Man From The Train", "The Manchester Pusher" and "Bridgend" focus on Serial Killers (or in the case of "Bridgend", a suicide outbreak) in a break from the UFO sightings, cryptids and hauntings the channel usually specialises in
• Mysterious Antarctica: "Footprints in the Snow", a video about the disappearance of Carl R. Disch, makes heavy use of this trope. After all, it's an unsolved mystery and it happened in Antarctica.

Tropes N-Z

• Nephilim: The Kandahar Giant from "There is Something in the Desert" is theorized to be a nephilim.
• Never Found the Body: Frequently happens.
  • The fate of Kenny Veach, as well as a number of other people who have mysteriously disappeared throughout the years, whose bodies were hardly ever recovered following their mysterious disappearances. It helps raise the question whether they're still alive.
  • Several of the cases from “There’s Something in the Woods” such as Dennis Miller, a six-year-old boy who disappeared in 1969 while visiting a national park with his family only to never be seen again.
  • Oliver Lerch in “The Mysteries of Christmas”. He was carried off by...something, and never seen again despite searches.
• New Media Are Evil: "Bridgend" discusses theories that then-new social media websites were to blame for a rash of suicides there. These theories are dismissed as unlikely, with the narrator reasoning that if there was an online suicide cult or somebody encouraging people to kill themselves, there almost certainly would have been some evidence of that left online.
• Nightmare Face: Michael Taylor's face at the ending of "The Devil Made Me Do it", where the narrator implies that the remaining three demons that had not been exorcised are still inside his mind.
  • One distinguishing feature of the wendigo: a nightmarish, evil-looking face, said to have either dull-black eyes or red eyes staring right back at you.
  • Paul Mueller is a human example, who is depicted in his episode going from an unattractive and unassuming middle-aged man to having an almost-demonic look on his face, complete with a Slasher Smile that could rival even Indrid Cold's in terms of dread.
  • "Ghost of the London Underground" features a spirit with a decayed zombie-like face peeking into the window of two security guards, but only one saw it.
  • The face seen in "There is Something in the Valley", which appears to be almost scarecrow-like. It appears to be someone or something wearing the face of another man.
• No Body Left Behind:
  • What the official fate of the missing Sodder children was. However, speaking with experts reveal that there is no way the fires of the house could have completely destroyed a human body completely. Furthermore, the bones they did find belonged to someone who was too old to have been one of the children.
  • The Nanjing Battalion disappeared with no hint as to what happened to them. That is, of course, assuming there ever was a battalion and not just a cautionary story.
  • While the adult bodies were found as skeletons, the two German children in "Tragedy in Death Valley" were never found.
• No Ending: Oddly, "Highways of Horror - Novis et Tenebris" doesn't end with a segment with the narrator closing the video, with an explanation in the early access version explaining there was little point as it would be repeating similar explanations to the past "Highways of Horror" video. It simply ends with finishing the last story. It doesn't even go into theories on what the mystery creature in Australia was.
• Non-Human Head: "Secrets of Celle Neues Rathaus" has a Nazi experiment in the basement of the titular building, in this case a human corpse merged together with a goat's head.
• Non-Malicious Monster:
  • The "wolf", heavily implied to be a Skinwalker, from the first Skinwalker Ranch episode, is surprisingly this. Rather than attack the Sherman family directly, it instead allows several of the family members to approach and pet it, and in hindsight was heavily implied to have been warning them about the aliens that frequent the area.
  • Despite its intimidating and beastly appearance, the titular Michigan Dogman from the episode of the same name refuses to harm any people who have seen it, preferring to flee into the woods at first sight.
• Not Enough to Bury: A few of the victims in "There is Something in the Woods", where only their clothes and a handful of their bones are found, with no signs of the rest of their bodies.
• Not So Invincible After All: While the Kandahar Giant is far bigger and stronger than any human soldier, it is still just as vulnerable to gunfire as any other living being. And so, the Army Special Forces team it ambushed opt to simply shoot him in the head, many, many times.
• Nothing Is Scarier: While most of the illustrations and details about their respective cases are mostly made explicit, there are certain cases where this trope is used. For example, "The Charterhouse Guest" relays the account of a man sleeping at the titular charterhouse overnight getting attacked by an unknown creature. However, he - and the audience - don't know or even see what the creature was.
• Off with His Head!:
  • The most recurring state in which corpses are found in "There Is Something in the Mountains" is that the heads of the victims are almost always missing, often only to be found much later than the rest of the remains.
  • The Nahanni Valley in Canada is also known as "The Headless Valley", no thanks to a lot of explorers and adventurers there being found with their heads missing.
• Older Than They Think: invoked "Who Are the Men in Black" points out that while stories about men in black are popularly thought to have started in the 1950s due to their heavy association with ufology, similar stories about mysterious men dressed in black date back to at least the Middle Ages.
• Old Media Are Evil: Discussed in "Bridgend", where it is mentioned that documentarians, reporters and TV crews constantly questioning the youth about the suicide epidemic that is the topic of the episode helped to normalise and thus increase suicide among Bridgend teens.
• Our Dragons Are Different: While the narrator never calls it a dragon, "The Horrors of the Chase" part 1 features a tale of a woman named Pauline who apparently was briefly displaced in time to watch an ancient tribe do battle with a large reptilian creature with bat-like features.
• Our Genies Are Different: During "There is Something in the Desert", the Jinn are suggested to be among the mysterious entities US soldiers encountered in Afghanistan.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: The Kandahar Giant, which wiped out a platoon of US Army soldiers in Afghanistan during The War on Terror, and was subsequently killed by a squad of US Special Forces not long after.
• Our Goblins Are Different: The Kentucky Goblins are actually aliens. It's also thought that the large eyes and ears they have are actually part of some kind of headgear and they are in fact The Greys.
• Our Demons Are Different: "The Evil Within" discusses a demon that possessed a boy who played with a Ouija board, and is described as clawed, slimy, legless and black with long skinny arms.
• Our Vampires Are Different:
  • "The Shadow of the Aswang", which dealt with tales on the titular creature, which serves as the Filipino variant of the traditional vampire.
  • "America's Vampires" has vampires that can pass off as normal humans during the day, suck the blood of victims at night, and have superhuman strength. No transforming into bats or other animals or known weakness to garlic, though.
  • One segment of "Highways of Horror - Novis et Tenebris" had a driver encounter a beautiful woman who become a grotesque monster called the kuntilanak, which is described as the Indonesian version of a vampire.
• Our Werewolves Are Different:
  • An explanation brought in "The Michigan Dogman" for where the titular creature, as well as similar creatures like the Beast of Bray Road, came from. The explanation is that they are members of the Native Cheyenne tribe who have transformed into Dog Men after becoming one with their spirit animals and roam the lands long after their tribe's era ended.
  • The titular Beast of Gévaudan was said by many witnesses to be a werewolf, being much bigger than a normal wolf and having features reminiscent of a man at the same time. Unlike the Michigan Dogman, this beast killed for sport, leaving victims with a Slashed Throat and then disappearing into the French countryside.
  • The titular werewolf of "The Monster of Morbach" was cursed by a woman he had murdered in his human life rather than bitten. There's also the implication that the many children he had fathered after raping several women would inherit his curse, causing the monument in the forest to be built to let his descendants avoid his terrible fate.
  • From "Tales From Skinwalker Ranch Part Three", Roland Mc Cook and his friend were hunting in the snow when they entered the homestead of the titular ranch for shelter. Strange noises led them outside, where human footprints led from the homestead that slowly become more wolf-like, leading to a wolf monster pointing at Roland before they open fire. To this day, Roland claims he hears animalistic sounds and scratching outside his window. While not said, it's possible the creature was a skinwalker and not a werewolf.
  • "The Horrifying Hexham Heads", the supposed "Wolf of Allendale" would appear in the proximity of the titular stones. No indication of it being able to turn human, though it also had goat-like features like horns.
  • "The Land Between The Lakes" features the rougarou, a werewolf or potential skinwalker responsible for the deaths and attacks in Kentucky. There's the possibility that there's more than one and they might be people in costumes of some kind, given they seem to have knowledge of modern technology and how they move.
• Ouija Board: One appears in "The Evil Within", being played by a Mexican boy and his friends. Unfortunately, what they thought was just a board game turns out to be much worse...
• Pen Name: Brought up in "The Kentucky Goblins - Part 2", in which David Christie claims that a mutual friend of his and Greg Newkirk who gave him the e-mail is named Terry Wriste. Greg never heard of this name and tried to find it. "Terry Wriste" was a pen name in books by Allen H. Greenfield, used by a former member of the military who claims to be part of a group that infiltrated alien bases in caves, which fit the aliens of Kentucky.
• Pet the Dog:
  • One of the tales of "Lair of the Wendigo" stated one of the titular creature stopped a hunter from coming towards a deer he shot by standing over it in a defensive position. Since Wendigos prey on the flesh of humans and not animals, it can be construed the creature was actually protecting the deer. The fact it did not come after the hunter despite having no reason not to points to this.
  • In "The Legend of the Bell Witch", the evil spirit/demon/curse conjured by Kate Batts to torment John Bell and his children, refuses to hurt or even touch Lucy Bell, John's wife, even helping her recover from a severe illness by providing her fruits and other nourishment.
  • The "robot" that kidnapped the boy from "The Missing 411 Part II", after the boy refused to comply with its demands, carried him back to where he was taken and waited with him in the bushes before a rescue team approached before leaving.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The titular creature "The Nameless Horror of Berkeley Square" is the size of a regular octopus, but is strong enough to kill even armed men and trained sailors.
• Portent of Doom: "Who are the Shadow People?" says that a visit from the shadow person known as "Hat Man" is said to signal a personal tragedy of some kind for whoever sees it.
• Primate Versus Reptile: Not in a literal sense, but "Secrets of Scape Ore Swamps" acknowledges that, like the sasquatch, there have been an equal number of sightings of large reptilian monsters, giving them a sort of rivalry.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: One by Kevin MacLeod, unsurprisingly, who is known for composing these kinds of tracks, and one that many a Youtube channel would use.
• Ranger: US Army Rangers are featured in one segment of "Enemy Unknown". Here, they bear witness to a mysterious craft attacking and wiping out Viet Cong positions near them, previously thought to have been a top-secret North Vietnamese superweapon.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: Unlike most stories involving disappearances connected with alien life, "What Happened to Granger Taylor?" ends on a much more hopeful note that, instead of dying that fateful night during the storm, Granger could still be alive and with the same aliens he made contact with, and is likely on his way home right now.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: "The Nightmare" has Paul Williams, at the time the manager of Cincinnati's FAAA office. When a man named David Booth called him to say he was having a recurring nightmare about a plane crash, he took him seriously. Unfortunately, since Booth's dream was lacking in key details, all that could be determined about the crash was that it was of a DC-10 jet aircraft flying under American Airlines.
• Red Baron:
  • Indrid Cold, otherwise known as "The Grinning Man".
  • Paul Mueller, the suspected "Man From The Train".
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: A few examples pop up.
  • The titular "Alien of Varginha" had bright red eyes that intimidated and scarred a Brazilian family who had encountered it by chance. This came to the point that they initially claimed that they had seen the Devil himself.
  • The Mothman, a mysterious cryptid that had huge, glowing red eyes, which terrorized Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The same applies to its Ukranian counterpart, the Blackbird of Chernobyl.
  • Some purported Wendigo sightings have witnesses claim that they had glowing red eyes, among other things.
  • A Humanoid Abomination encountered by US Special Forces in Afghanistan had glowing red eyes as one of its notable features, and is established during it's sole encounter that it is a dangerous and possibly malevolent being.
  • A feature common on all aswangs are their demonic, bloodshot red eyes.
  • The Lizardman featured in "Secrets of Scape Ore Swamp" is another monster with bright, red eyes. One that attacks people in its swamp.
  • The Silver Man of "The Mysterious Risley Encounter" was said by its one witness to have red eyes, eyes that glowed and released what was presumably radiation that caused Ken Edwards pain and possibly the cancer that took his life.
• Reincarnation: "Renascence" depicts three stories of children who claim to have lived past lives before they chose to forgot those old memories in favor of living their new existences. Most notable is the infamous Pollock twins, who were the splitting images of their deceased sisters along with retaining some of their memories.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Lizardman of "Secrets of Scape Ore Swamp" is a purported monster that attacks people, devours animals, destroyed motor vehicles.
• Riddle for the Ages: Almost every episode has a mystery that will remain unsolved. What did Ken Edwards see that night and was it really the cause of the cancer that took his life? Who was the woman who called Jeff Greenhaw that led to him seeing the Metal Man? What did the Boys from Yuba City encounter that led to members of the group either dying or disappearing? We will likely never know.
• Samurai: A ghost clad in samurai armor is among those featured in "Ghosts of Kadena Airbase".
• Satan: "The Devil's Footprints" features titular hoof-like prints in the snow that, due to being in locations physically impossible and their bipedal appearance, caused the townfolk to believe the devil himself walked among them over night.
• Savage Wolf: The Beast of Gévaudan, werewolf or not, was a monster of a wolf who killed over 100 people, few of them with little animal predation, meaning it killed for sport.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • The Celle Neues Rathaus' entire basement section was flooded by the SS just before the arrival of the Western Allies in 1945. And after that, the British Army had the access points to the basement sealed with concrete. Considering what happened to the US Navy divers that explored the area, this was definitely a good move.
  • The titular Entity of Tsarichina is a malevolent Ancient Evil, possibly alien being that attacks humans on sight, that was found sealed deep within a cave in Bulgaria.
• Sea Monster: A few are mentioned in the episode "There is Something in the Water", such as the Kraken and the supposedly extinct Megalodon and Mosasaur.
• Self-Parody: "Creatures of April Falls". Between Stylistic Suck drawings, deliberately unspecific narrative, and a tongue-in-cheek drawing of Bigfoot reading a newspaper of himself, it's clear this episode was meant to be a parody of the show's normally bleak material (it was released on April Fools' Day, after all).
• Send in the Search Team: "The Curse of the Ourang Medan" has the American freighter Silver Star send one to investigate the fate of the titular ship.
• Serial Killer:
  • Fred and Rosemary West, two of England's most notorious ones.
  • Paul Mueller, also known as "The Man from The Train", who killed entire families throughout the Continental United States from the late 1890s to the early 1910s.
  • The "Manchester Pusher" is a serial killer who probably exists, assuming all those drownings were not accidents.
  • The "Smiley Face Killers" is rumored to be a group of these. Their trademark is leaving smiley face graffiti for each young man they abduct and kill, usually left near bodies of water.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: A theory about the aliens in "The Ariel School Incident" is that they are in fact time travelers trying to warn of future events as to avoid a terrible fate.
• Skin Walker:
  • The "wolf" from the first episode about Skinwalker Ranch is heavily implied to be one, given that its Immune to Bullets, disappears without a trace, and appears to be very intelligent. Unlike most cases, this one appears to be a Non-Malicious Monster, and is implied to be very wary of the area.
  • "Scourge of the Skinwalker" is an episode that finally delves into stories about the titular creature.
• Shout-Out: A few of their visuals borrow cues from other media.
  • The Black-eyed children as depicted in the episode of the same name are obviously based on the children from Village of the Damned (1960).
  • The opening title card of "There is Something In The Water" is an obvious reference to Jaws.
  • The overall appearance of the Wendigos in "Lair of the Wendigo" is similar to how the monsters appeared in Until Dawn.
  • Similar to the Wendigo example above, the design of the Aswang from "Shadow of the Aswang" are clearly based off the ones from Grimm.
  • The episode covering miltary encounters with UFOs and aliens during The Vietnam War is titled "Enemy Unknown"
• Sinister Southwest: A common recurring theme used in the series is depicting the American Southwest as just as dangerous as the Appalachian Trails on the East Coast. Among the more notable cases covered here include Skinwalker and Stardust Ranches, the disappearances of dozens of prospectors and hikers in the desert, encounters with different kinds of cryptids, and mysterious hauntings on the US-Mexico border.
• Sinister Car: Two of them, in the form of The Little Bastard owned by James Dean, and the lesser-known Golden Eagle, said to be the inspiration for Stephen King's Christine. True to this trope, both cars are said to possess an evil aura, and are said to be responsible for dozens of deaths to anyone who disturbed or touched any of their parts, respectively.
• Sinking Ship Scenario:
  • "The Curse of the Ourang Medan" has the titular cargo ship blowing up and sinking just after being discovered by the crew of an American cargo ship.
  • The Ivan Vassili, a Russian cargo freighter commandeered by the Imperial Russian Navy during the Russo-Japanese War, is torched and eventually sunk by some paranoid drunks following a series of deaths that took place onboard.
  • The entire premise of the "Nautical Nightmares" series, where the creators narrate several mysterious shipwrecks throughout history. The third part, "First in Defense", however, is a subversion, as all the US Navy ships and submarines covered in the episode survive their various incidents intact.
• Skull for a Head: Brought up in "Lair of the Wendigo" that modern descriptions of the wendigo suggest it has the skull of a deer for a head, something that was not present in Native American folklore.
• Slasher Smile:
  • The Grinning Man's default expression, which can best be described as a smile of malice.
  • Paul Mueller in "The Man from The Train - Part Two - Modus Operandi" does this when feeling an urge to kill.
• Snakes Are Sinister: "Enemy Unexplained" acknowledges the presence of Kaiju snakes in Vietnam, which local villagers call "bull-eaters".
• Snow Means Death: Several examples, but used most prominently in the episodes focusing on Dyatlov Pass, as well as the lesser-known Boys from Yuba City incident, and in Footprints in the Snow.
• The Sociopath: Fred West was a man who clearly had no semblance of humanity or empathy. He casually admitted once the skeletal remains of a girl were found that he killed her. He even seemed surprised that people don't rape or murder people on a whim.
• Sole Survivor: Yuri Yudin, the only surviving member of the Dyatlov Pass incident. Thanks to his ill health, he was forced to head back and cut his hike short. Ironically, this saved his life.
• Spiritual Successor: Many have called this show the Internet equivalent of Unsolved Mysteries.
• Splash of Color: Red in this case, to signify blood, in "The Devil Made Me Do It", or alternatively, glowing, red eyes.
  • Starting with "Tales from Skinwalker Ranch, Part One", very light tints of grey, blue, yellow, and red are now added in, although the panels themselves are still mostly black and white.
• Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Quite a few examples.
  • The titular Wraith of Trench Pool, which terrorized a man for weeks on end, and then mysteriously disappeared afterward.
  • Another one is featured in "The Nameless Horror of Berkeley Square", and is said to be the ghost of one of the former residents who died there tragically.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Happens on occasion, usually related to vehicle accidents.
  • The SS Ourang Medan, which explodes not long after its discovery by the Silver Star crew.
  • American Airlines Flight 191, which crashes straight into the ground following the loss of the plane's engine, and explodes in a huge fireball.
  • UB-65 mysteriously explodes and sinks just as a US Navy submarine is about to sink her with torpedoes.
• Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Four prominent examples of allegedly advanced Nazi projects are depicted.
  • "The Skies over Kecksburg" features Die Glocke, a purported Nazi superweapon project said to have disappeared following the end of the War in Europe. Some fringe theorists say that the object that crash landed near the titular town has something to do with this weapon, since the shape of the object and symbols found on it were said to be similar to the Nazi object. The object returns in "For Whom The Bell Tolls", where it is discussed in further detail.
  • "Evil Under the Ice" depicts Haunebu, a top-secret German aircraft capable of supersonic flight, and more than a match for the F8F Bearcats and F4U-4 Corsairs used by the US Navy.
  • "The New York Nuke" details a potential attempt by the Nazis to hit Manhattan Island with a nuclear bomb with a plane that could have made a trip to the United States and Germany without stopping. Downplayed with the Ju 390, which, while an advanced prototype, is ultimately still just a conventionally-powered propeller aircraft rather than a sleek jet like the Me 262, He 162, or Ho 229.
• Stylistic Suck: "Creatures of April Falls".
• Suicide Pact: The Chundawat family, who all died on the same day. Further investigation reveals the oldest family member to have been murdered prior, and that at least three family members were sedated beforehand and then hung.
• Super Prototype: The Junkers Ju 390, which, unlike its contemporaries, is capable of transatlantic flights, to the point it can potentially stay airborne over New York City for an hour, and then head back to Europe.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Gaurav Tiwari, a healthy, Happily Married young man, is suddenly dies from asphyxiation for apparently unknown reasons, heavily implied to be due to the work of malevolent spirits.
• Swamp Monster: The titular "Secret of Scape Ore Swamp" is a reptilian bipedal beast said to inhabit the swamp located in South Carolina. It ended up becoming infamous when several sightings reported that it liked to attack and chase after cars passing through highways located near the swamp at night. Some accounts even allege that it even fights against Sasquatches residing in the nearby forests.
• That's No Moon: "There is Something on the Moon" brings up the theory that the moon is actually a space station of some kind, inhabited by aliens.
• This Was His True Form: That Humanoid Abomination terrorizing Lucas Villa? Turns out its true form is a shapeless black puddle with an evil expression. Subverted in that the being doesen't die, just expelled from his body.
• Those Wacky Nazis: Mentioned in three episodes, "Secret of Celle Neues Rathaus", "The Mysterious Murders of Hinterkaifeck", and "Evil Under the Ice". In the first example, it's heavily implied that they did occult experiments within the basement floors of the titular building, while in the latter they're considered as one of the many possible suspects in the titular murders. In the last episode mentioned, it's hinted that several high-ranking Nazis managed to flee the dying Third Reich in 1945, head to Antarctica via U-boat, and then construct top-secret bases in order to continue fighting against the Western Allies and the Soviets.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: Michael Taylor ended up murdering his wife Christine just two hours after he had been exorcised. To this day, nobody knows if it was a case of Demonic Possession or just severe mental illness.
• Time Machine: The mysterious ship in "The Rendlesham Forest Incident" is theorized to actually be a time machine rather than a space ship.
• Time Travel Episode: With some brief mention in previous episodes, In the Fullness of Time dedicates three cases involving alleged time travelers, two potentially from the future who might have altered the present, the last from the present who presumably died from his own experiment and his corpse ending up in the past.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Both police officers in "The CrossWade Interlopers" realize that the two mysterious men who were intruding the CrossWade office building were none other than past and/or future versions of themselves.
• Too Dumb to Live: One of the alleged victims of Carl Pruitt's curse decided to shoot Pruitt's grave with a revolver, all while on a horse-drawn carriage and with his family onboard. The horse, being surprised by the sound of the firing of the man's gun, suddenly jerked, and in the process got him killed by the chains holding the horse and carriage together. Fortunately, his family was unharmed.
• Twisted Christmas: "The Mysteries Of Christmas" involved three stories that took place during the holidays.
• Uncanny Valley: Invoked. Whenever something otherworldly, such as Indrid Cold, is shown to be trying to pass off as humans, the creators make it a point to depict them in this manner, to signify that there is something off about them.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • The fate of many missing people, from Carl Robert Disch and Kenny Veatch (who likely committed suicide and their bodies are somewhere difficult to locate) to the man known as David Christie (left ambiguous if his fate was connected to the "Kentucky Goblins").
  • The fate of the Van Meter Visitors as the mine they were in was detonated. The possibility that they found another way out is suggested, but they were never seen again.
• Undead Author:
  • The scene-setting story at the beginning of the episode on The Ghosts of Stocksbridge Bypass is an invention of the channel (and not based on any specific incident) where a woman is distracted by a ghost and crashes her car, dying on the spot. This was not made clear in the actual episode, so queue a ton of comments asking how anybody knew what she saw.
  • The story of "The Blackbird of Chernobyl" is regarded as likely fictitious since those who reportedly saw the titular monster died during the incident. With no photographic or video evidence to support the claim, all evidence suggests it was made up and given similar elements to the Mothman sightings to add credence.
• Unreliable Expositor:
  • They put out a supplement video covering both mistakes they themselves had made and also why they consider David Paulides (who they occasionally used as a source) to be one. One specific example they give is that he makes a big deal about how far away a body was found from where the person went missing, but neglected to mention that where he was found was actually the bottom of the cliff he went missing at the top of which makes how his body got there fairly obvious.
  • They acknowledge that the videos by Jeff Sailors in "The Buffalo Ranch Encounters" that detail the events brought up in the episode are taken at face value, yet no tangible proof is ever shown. Most of it is him recalling the events, though done in a manner that sounds genuine. It does not help that he never says the exact name of the ranch, referring to as "the buffalo ranch", nor does he he give much details outside of it being in Eastern Colorado. It's suggested he purposefully avoids saying the name and exact location due to protecting the owners. The fact that Sailors has been silent on the internet since 2019 only further raises questions. That said, the fact that the FBI have records of ranches in Colorado that were alleged hotspots for cattle mutilations does add credence to his claims.
• The Unsolved Mystery: A common theme in a lot of their episodes. Usually, this means mysterious disappearances of people, but on occassion, they also cover mysterious deaths.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Frequently, many terrible things were caused by people who didn't know any better.
  • The priests in "The Devil Made Me Do It" should not have let Michael leave so soon after the exorcism, as his wife and dog would not have met such gruesome ends.
  • The drunk soldiers from "Monster of Morbach" chose to mock the monument rather than relight the candles. By not doing so, or at least telling anyone about the candles going out, they allowed a terrifying werewolf to attack the base.
  • From "The Hospital That Never Was". The policeman who ordered the old woman to stay away from Khovrino hospital as opposed to take her concerns of her missing dog seriously. Had he not been so lazy or uncooperative, she might've stay away from that place and lived to see morning.
• Urban Legends: The channel specializes in recounting many (relatively) modern folktales, often featuring allegedly paranormal phenomena or supernatural entities.
• Vampire Doctor: "America's Vampires" established the story of Doctor Alfort, who was a vampire who preyed on his patrons.
• Vampire Episode: "America's Vampires" chronicled tales of vampiric murderers in the United States.
• Vengeful Ghost: "Strangeness in the Borderlands" shows the ghost of a murdered border patrol officer who, while assisting lost immigrants, also stalked a group of criminals after their leader fell to his death. It was the same man who murdered him and he died in a similar manner, allowing his death to be avenged.
• Vocal Evolution: Comparing early episodes to the modern ones, Richard's narration is no longer as quiet or monotone, speaking more naturally at a normal volume.
• Voice Changeling: Wendigos can mimic the voice of a person's friends or loved ones, in the hopes of luring them closer so that these monsters can kill them easily.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: Aswangs, at least during nighttime, are perfectly capable of changing their humanoid forms into those of birds, dogs, or other animals in order to get close to their victims.
• Weird Historical War: "Enemy Unknown" discusses alleged alien spacecraft sighted during the Vietnam War and the attacks they made on both Vietcong and American forces.
• Weird West: If you believe everything discussed on this channel is true, Arizona is a haunt of aliens, Skinwalkers and cursed mountains.
  • The absolute king of this, however, is Skinwalker Ranch, a cattle ranch in northern Utah home to a truly staggering amount of paranormal activity, including: At least two types of UFOs that frequently abducted and mutilated cattle, an enormous wolf Immune to Bullets, shadowy figures, strange noises, disembodied voices, poltergeist activity, hyena-like canines, portals in the sky, massive holes in the ground appearing overnight and Bigfoot.
• Wendigo: The focus of the episode "Lair of the Wendigo", where the narrator discusses the legend itself, a handful of modern alleged sightings, as well as supposed video evidence of its existence.
• Wicked Witch: The titular evil of "The Legend of the Bell Witch" is referred as a spirit or entity, though the artwork depicted it as the typical image of a witch: an ugly old woman in a dark robe with a large nose and missing teeth.
• Winged Humanoid: The titular Mothman and Blackbird of Chernobyl, who may or may not be the same being or species of cryptid/alien.
• Woman Scorned: Chris Case was on the receiving end of this through a curse, courtesy of an alleged witch.
• The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): Several cases of trained and experience outdoorsmen, who have years of knowledge and experience on their belts, are killed in the very wilderness they apparently knew how to trek through.
  • The same applies to Lt. Charles Taylor, an accomplished airman and veteran of World War II. Despite his experience in piloting, he disappears with the rest of his flight due to navigation error during a supposedly routine training mission.
• Would Hurt a Child: Among the lives claimed by the unknown individual known as "The Man on the Train" in Villisca, Iowa were six children.

---

Bedtime Storieeeesssss...