DARK WEB: AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CREEPYPASTA PART 34: CHANNEL ZERO - AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NICK ANTOSCA

THIS FEATURE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED AT UK HORROR SCENE HERE.

ALL SUBSEQUENT FEATURES WILL APPEAR THERE FIRST

In my last Dark Web feature I wrote about how Creepypasta is fast becoming a recognised sub-genre that, rather than cater to a fervent and enthusiastic minority, is starting to branch out into the mainstream. Since the runaway success of The Walking Dead blew open the doors for horror genre television, television producers have sought a ready supply of recognisable brands of dark fiction.

Comics such as Outcast and Preacher have yielded results, but there is no denying that web publishing is a veritable goldmine for horror stories.

One of the first shows to recognise this fact is the superb Channel Zero.





Having just wrapped up its first critically acclaimed season on Syfy, with a second confirmed for late 2017, the show is the brainchild of gifted author and screenwriter, Nick Antosca.

In 2015 the station announced that it had greenlit two six episode seasons, both of which were to be based on popular creepypastas. The first would focus on Kris Straub’s excellent Candle Cove, a story I covered here back in February.

The second would cover Brian Russell’s equally popular NoEnd House.

‘We love the idea of doing seasons of TV like rich, character-driven horror novels, and for Channel Zero: Candle Cove we’ve expanded this great short story Candle Cove into something really nightmarish and haunting and surreal,’ Antosca and fellow executive producer Max Landis said in a joint statement. ‘We can’t wait to dig in deeper and bring this to life with Syfy and Universal Cable Productions.’

Casting notices followed, an on 20 June this year a Variety exclusive article announced that Paul Schneider and Fiona Shaw would star in the first season.

This was followed by the reveal that Craig William Macneill (director of The Boy) would be behind the camera for all six episodes of the season. This was quite the coup for the show and interest intensified massively.

As the hype machine gathered more momentum, we finally started to learn more about the show’s storyline.

It was revealed that Schneider would play Mike Painter, a child psychologist who returns to his childhood hometown of Iron Hill to investigate the mysterious disappearance of several children back in the 1980s, including his twin brother, Eddie (with child actor Luca Villacis portraying both of the young Painter boys). He has reason to believe that these unsolved crimes could be related to a mysterious and creepy children’s television show, the titular Candle Cove, but his return to the town kickstarts a new and terrifying chain of events. Aided by his reluctant mother, Marla (Shaw) and childhood sweetheart Jessica (Natalie Brown), Mike must solve the mystery before a new generation of children succumb to the evil that devastated his life 30 years ago.



Of course, using a well-known short story for inspiration is one thing — using it well is quite another. What works in literature does not always translate as well to the screen, while stretching a few hundred words to fill six hours of screen time is obviously a huge challenge.
Luckily, it was one in which Macneill, Antosca, Landis and their crew were more than up to the task.
What he did was use the Candle Cove story as a jumping on point for a massively expanded tale which took in a large cast of characters and an even richer mythology.
Yes, Kris Straub’s fictional nightmarish children's show is present and depicted very faithfully indeed, but some of the show’s most chilling creations (such as the deeply disturbing Tooth Child) are brand new, original creations for Antosca’s story.
The show gives Candle Cove’s fans everything they want, but it also gives the viewer new, compelling characters and situations optimised for visual storytelling.
Finally the show debuted on 11 October and, over the following five weeks it told a deeply compelling and legitimately unsettling story that won plenty of fans.

Proving a resounding success with critics (the show boasts a solid 75/100 rating at Metacritic — and a whopping 92% at Rotten Tomatoes) and with much buzz already surrounding a second season which is still quite a wait away, Channel Zero proves what Creepypasta fans have known for years — the next wave of classic horror fiction is already here, just waiting to be discovered in the darkest recesses of the internet.

Of course, the show would never have proven such a triumph in the hands of a less talented show-runner, and it is for precisely this reason that we all owe Nick Antosca a debt of gratitude.

So what is next for Nick and his groundbreaking creation? Well, I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with him about Channel Zero and it gives me tremendous pleasure to present our interview below.

HICKEY’S HOUSE OF HORRORS: Hi Nick, and thank you so much for agreeing to speak to Hickey’s House of Horrors about Channel Zero.

First, why creepypasta? Translating bite-sized literature into serialised visual media isn't the most obvious of steps, so what inspired you to do so?

NICK ANTOSCA: Great ideas can come from anywhere. Candle Cove was such an exciting story to adapt, and I just thought why not do more? I love that the best of these stories are a strong, terrifying concept that you can build on. They leave room for creativity.



HHoH: Why do you think Creepypasta has resonated so well with the fandom?


NA: There's something about the "true story" quality of the best ones. Great creepypasta stories tend to capture a feeling of familiarity. You feel like they're describing something that happened to a friend of yours one time.

HHoH: How did it feel to see the tremendous reception that Channel Zero received from critics and viewers alike? Why do you think it was so well-received by audiences?


NA: You don't necessarily get a lot of chances to make a TV show, so I feel like if you get to do it, make sure it's something you'd want to do watch and that you'll be proud of later. Craig and I were really just trying to make the kind of horror we wanted to watch. So it was really gratifying that viewers and critics seemed to respond to it.


HHoH: The choices of creepypasta of the first two seasons of the show suggest that the Channel Zero team are fans of the genre. It would have been easy to adapt more well-known and ‘trendy’ stories such as Slenderman, Jeff the Killer or the Rake, but instead with Candle Cove and NoEnd House, you've picked stories with serious fan cred. Are you guys pasta fans? If so, what are some of your favourites?

NA: Of course we're fans! Some other favorites (and this does not mean we'll necessarily adapt any of these if we get another season, just that I personally like these stories) are Goatman, Search and Rescue Woods (aka "the staircase one"), Abandoned by Disney, Ted the Caver, and Psychosis.

HHoH: Why did you pick Candle Cove? And why NoEnd House?

NA: Those two stories are perfect examples of the kind of story we want to adapt — distinctive, iconic concepts that we can build worlds around. A mysterious kids' TV show. A sinister horror house. Plus a great sense of atmosphere and dread.

HHoH: What challenges came with adapting such well-loved stories?

NA: It was important to preserve the sense of eerie dread that's baked into the stories. We wanted to build worlds and mythologies out of these very short stories, but we had to make sure the spirit of the originals didn't get lost. It's easy to do jump scares but it's harder to create six hours of slow-building nightmare.

HHoH: One of the first season's biggest strengths was the manner in which you faithfully adapted a relatively small-scale story but built on this mythos to tell a bigger, yet more personal story. Is this the route you plan to go with subsequent seasons, taking a strong core premise and giving it your own unique spin?

NA: Yes, that's a good way of putting it. That's pretty much exactly what I hope to do. Each season will have a different visual style and cinematic voice, though.

HHoH: I was fortunate enough to interview Kris Straub last year and he was very excited about your vision for Candle Cove. What was it like working with him? And how were things with NoEnd House's Brian Russell?

NA: I love Kris's story and I'm really glad he's into the show. I sent him the pilot script to approve before we got greenlit and we kept in touch throughout, but the actual writing process was pretty separate. Brian is actually working on The Exorcist on Fox right now, so we had lunch early in the NEH process and he's read the first couple scripts. Both writers are awesome and I'm grateful to them for letting us create elaborate fanfiction based on their stories.

HHoH: Channel Zero has assembled a tremendous cast for both seasons. How important was it to find the right actors rather than 'flavour of the month' names? Can we expect to see you work with any of the season one cast again?

NA: I can't overstate the importance. Cast distinguishes something like this.One of the advantages of being kind of an under-the-radar, low-profile show when we were in production is that we were able to go after actors based purely on talent, rather than the casting department's idea of a "get" or someone with a big social media following.

HHoH: While I understand that from a contract standpoint it's very difficult to discuss future plans for Channel Zero, do you feel at liberty to tell us any more about plans you might have for the show? Are there any stories you'd be keen to cover in future seasons?

NA: I know what story I want to do if we get a third season. I can't say what it is yet, though.

HHoH: And finally, something a little more fun here, I've seen some wonderful examples of fan art on the web (including some awesome Toothchild images). Are there any pieces of art that have impressed you or the Channel Zero cast and crew?

NA: Fan art? Yeah, I'm impressed whenever anyone creates Channel Zero fan art, for sure. I like everything I've seen!

If you want to find out more about Nick, Channel Zero and his other upcoming projects, be sure to follow him over at twitter: @NickAntosca

With touted movie adaptations of multiple Creepypasta properties, plus the second season of Channel Zero on the way, now, more than ever, is an exciting time to be a creepypasta fan.

Come back next time when I’ll sit down to talk to another of the genre’s most prestigious, recognised and lauded authors over his substantial body of work within the community.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors
Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

DARK WEB: AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CREEPYPASTA 25 – AN INTERVIEW WITH SESSEUR/KILLERJEFF

PLEASE NOTE, THIS FEATURE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED AT UK HORROR SCENE HERE. ALL SUBSEQUENT CHAPTERS WILL APPEAR FIRST THERE.

Long term readers of this series of features on the darker side of Internet fiction may remember that the very first feature I wrote was on the dark posterboy of Creepypasta, Jeff the Killer. 

Based on a decidedly disturbing image of ‘Jeff’s’ nightmarish face, Jeff is one of the oldest and most popular creations among the CP community. However, as big an icon as Jeff has become, his origin has been shrouded in mystery and more than its fair share of controversy. 

As I wrote before, Jeff’s earliest appearances seem to be as an image posted to the website, newgrounds.com, in August 2008.

The post claims that Jeff is actually summoned through a ‘Bloody Mary’-style game. Those who wish to call Jeff must switch off the lights, then sit cross-legged in a closet and, while turning their head back and forth, repeat the following saying three times: ‘He’s in here with me.’ Upon doing this, the player is instructed to close their eyes and call out to Jeff. He is then said to appear, his face mere inches from the summoner’s and begin to scream at them. The only way to dismiss Jeff is to compliment him — failure to do so will result in something KillerJeff ominously refers to as ‘a nightmarish field trip’.

Pretty soon a number of ‘backstories’ for the picture sprang up, one of the very first of which was in a comment that accompanied the picture on newgrounds in which, when questioned about why Jeff looks the way he does, KillerJeff replied: ‘I was holding a container full of acid when I slipped on my soapy floor and it spilled all over my face, luckly someone heard my cry for help and took me to a Hospital, the doctors fixed my face up and vola, I’m sexy!’

It was this origin which formed the basis of a video uploaded to YouTube by user Sesseur on 3rd October 2008. Sadly, Sesseur’s YouTube account has since closed, but the video used the popular Jeff the Killer image as well as another, rougher looking draft of the picture along with text accompanied by The Posie’s track, I Guess You’re Right. Once again, the story told of an accident involving a slippery bathroom floor, a bucketful of acid, devastating facial injuries and a subsequent psychological breakdown that lead to Jeff becoming a serial killer. In 2011 another origin story for Jeff was written, one in which his facial injuries were caused by a gang of bullies, a story which has since become the most popular backstory for Jeff.

Yet as popular as this version of events became, the originator of the Jeff the Killer legend seems to have been forgotten. Sesseur has since disappeared from YouTube, but there is a DeviantArt account in that name. Of course, a shared name on the internet means nothing (I’ve seen Catfish, I know the web is full of phonies and fakers) so when I managed to make contact with this Sesseur I remained cautious.

However, KillerJeff still seems to be the oldest source for Jeff the Killer and is notoriously difficult to contact… until now.

After months of looking (and plenty of dead ends) I managed to contact KillerJeff directly who confirmed that he and Sesseur are indeed one and the same. What’s more, he confirmed that the DeviantArt account also belongs to him.
It seems that both Sesseurs, plus KillerJeff are one and the same individual — one Jeff Case, a 22-year-old man from the eastern United States.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited by this breakthrough, and even more delighted when he agreed to answer my questions about the creation of one of the internet’s most infamous monsters for you, my readers.

What follows below is an interview with the original creator of Jeff the Killer.

HICKEY'S HOUSE OF HORRORS: The most obvious first – In your own words, tell us a little about Jeff the Killer?

SESSEUR A.K.A. JEFF CASE: He’s a tortured soul, once living a normal life, until an accident turned him into a disfigured freak that society shunned due to his appearance. He decided to become what they see him as and tried his best to murder as many people as he deemed wicked.

He and his brother both hide out in a regular suburban New Jersey home with a very dark story behind it. Jeff’s brother Liu makes sure Jeff is hidden (he even managed to convince people that he died in surgery), hiding bodies that Jeff returned to the house hold, alluding police so no one would be suspicious of the Hodek household. Liu doesn’t murder people, he doesn’t want Jeff to be a killer but their bond is very strong so they both end up being crime brothers. Jeff does the killing, Liu does the providing.

HHoH: What served as your inspiration for the character?
S(JC): Just sheer boredom, I was 15 years old, and I wanted to make something that would be a meme, I decided to make a short story and the picture I had since late 2006 was a perfect visualization of the main monster for Jeff the killer. In 2008 I made a simple 5 minute video of Jeff’s backstory. I never expanded the story there, because it was meant to be a short urban legend, until 2011 where someone took the story and popularized Jeff, however, vastly changing him from my vision of Jeff.

HHoH: Which idea came to you first, the image or the story?S(JC): The image was made first, then 2 years later a story was made for it.

HHoH: Speaking of the story, there seems to be another very well-known origin story out there, which describes Jeff’s battle with bullies and subsequent disfigurement in a fire. What are your thoughts on this ‘alternative’ take on your character?
S(JC): It helped bring Jeff to fame, but it ultimately turned Jeff into what he wasn’t at all.

HHoH: Are you a fan of Creepypasta? If so, what is your favourite Creepypasta by a creator other than yourself?
S(JC): Back before the teeny boppers made creepypasta wiki to get their pasta fix, there was only a few good pastas on Encyclopedia Dramatica, the real scary stuff, none of that fan stories you’d find all over the pasta wiki.
I wasn’t really a fan of one specific one, but I really enjoyed the urban legend ones, none of the narrative stories that Jeff was turned into, but a story that was told by someone else, in a way that would really make you wonder if it was true or not. Those are the gold stories.

HHoH: Which writers, horror or otherwise, do you consider yourself a fan of?
S(JC): To be honest, I’ve got no horror writer of any that I look up to or can say I’m that big over. I know about Steven King, but I only know him for the movies that are based off his work. I know of H.P Lovecraft only by name and some characters. I am very fond of David Lynch’s style of horror, very surreal, nightmare-like, subtle. Jeff is not David Lynch inspired, if any horror writer/director was to be compared, it would maybe be Wes Craven, since Jeff will be slasher horror once I get to working on a full Jeff story.

HHoH: What work of your own are you most proud of?
S(JC): The ones that were deleted along with my youtube channel, due to people who didn’t agree with me creating Jeff and made it their goal to hide the fact that I’m the creator, so I have my pictures to be proud of, and the saved stories that will be within the Jeff-verse (non-official name) based on my percocet-laced dreams.
I’m really eager to get my fictional universe out there to whoever is interested in the mythos that goes beyond Jeff himself, but other characters and events. It’s a really exciting thing for me and I hope that it all comes into full fruition — maybe then Jeff won’t be the only thing people ask from me.

HHoH: I did notice that your YouTube channel had been deleted. What happened there? Is there anywhere else I can send your fans to watch the origin story?
S(JC): People who think I’m a phoney is what happened. Many people tend to disagree with my version of Jeff and all they do is flag their problem away. Sadly there is no other video that I possess, someone might have a copy video somewhere, I do hold on to hope that I get my account back soon.

HHoH: The fans are very passionate about the character. Are there any examples of fan art, such as images, films or readings, in particular that have impressed you?
S(JC): The ones that don’t display him in sexual situations relieve me, and there are the ones that really have a different and cool spin on him — some are impressive that really make me think: “Aw shit, I want to do that with him too!”

HHoH: By the same token, are there any unauthorised attempts to cash in on the popularity of your character that have upset you?
S(JC): Many, but I’ve taken it all in my stride, as my production company (who’re going to help make Jeff more than just a story online) take care of the people who unfairly take the credit and money without any compensation for me. I welcome all the fan works, but when it comes to the monopoly of my creation they should understand how wrong it is to take what I made for themselves. I even get people telling me that on messages that it’s going to be for profit, no joke.

HHoH: Arguably the most popular spin-off is Jane the Killer. What are your thoughts on that character/story?
S(JC): In all honesty, I don’t read any of those fan stories that tend to go against what Jeff is about, so my opinion is pretty much neutral.

HHoH: The Jeff the Killer image is one of the most recognisable in all of Creepypasta. Where did it come from? Did you create the image yourself, and if so, what acted as the base model for your pic? I’ve heard rumours that it could be based on animals or even the Overly Attached Girlfriend meme.
S(JC): When it comes to the Overly Attached girlfriend, it wouldn’t make sense due to the fact that Jeff was around in 2006, and OAG was around like 2010-2012, something like that, so that speculation is rendered null.

HHoH: There has also been some controversy over Jeff the Killer caused by web users who claim the image is of a young lady named Katy Robinson who committed suicide after being bullied by trolls on 4chan. Would you care to address this?
S(JC): Oh yes, those rumors, I know all too well. The Katy Robinson one has become a little in-joke at this point, people speculate that it was a photoshopped version of her, because a person on 4chan said so, and they took the bait because 4chan is known to be creditable. I really wish that one day these rumors of Katy and Jeff would die, but people are people so I expect this to last until 2027 if Jeff is still relevant.
Jeff is a latex mask, that was worn. Three pictures were taken, two made it online. I’m not sure about the 3rd, I think it was sideways in the bathroom instead of the closet. One picture is unedited where the eyes are red around and the mouth is open, the edited one is where the eyes are blackened, and the mouth is smudged a little with Photoshop to make a smile.
The clothes worn during the two pictures were a white T-shirt and blue jeans. That’s the real Jeff a creepy mask.

HHoH: Do you still have the mask or any other pictures of it? Can you remember where you bought it? I’m sure readers would love the chance to own the same mask that inspired Jeff.
S(JC): The mask was purely man-made from latex and I think a little other material to have it cover the whole head, plus a wig ensemble. The pictures taken were long gone, and the mask was put in the closet after use so it’s definitely long gone. 

If I had that mask with me, there’s no telling how valuable it would be. But I do know that with every success there is merchandise, so I’m sure fans will be getting professionally made masks of Jeff instead of that crudely put together one that was the original.

HHoH: What else can your fans look forward to from you (and Jeff) in the days ahead?
S(JC): Aside from Jeff, I got a truck load of stories that I’ve been saving until the right time. New Characters, even ones that I will be in the process of purchasing from creators that don’t want nothing to do with them, a really rich world that I hope everyone will enjoy!

HHoH: Is there any link you’d like me to send my readers to so they can discover some more of your creations? Or any in particular that you’d like to share?
S(JC): Deviant art is a good place to get the idea, soon I’ll be adding more pictures and story, so stay tuned!

Come back next time, when I’ll be revisiting another classic Creepypasta tale, complete with an interview with the man who created it.

DARK WEB: AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CREEPYPASTA — PART 21: THE SMILING MAN

THIS FEATURE FIRST APPEARED AT UK HORROR SCENE HERE. ALL SUBSEQUENT CHAPTERS WILL BE PUBLISHED THERE FIRST.

One of recurring features of the Creepypasta stories that I’ve covered in this series is that somebody, somewhere, inevitably believed that the events described are true. It’s not just naivety that fuels this belief, the stories are so well written that they touch on a part of our mind that is prepared to believe in their horrors — the part that imagines the monsters of the horror film we’ve just watched might really be the source of that strange noise in the dead of night.

Despite this, these stories are all just that — fanciful tales told to elicit chills and thrills straight from the imagination of their authors.

Except one.

There is one Creepypasta bogeyman who, the writer swears, comes from the real world that we all inhabit. He is among us, even now.

He is the Smiling Man.

The encounter with the Smiling Man first appeared on Creepypasta fans’ radar back on 24 April 2012, on Reddit's r/nosleep subreddit. The story details an encounter that Redditor Blue Tidal had late one evening in a North American city some five years prior to the time of writing.

Something of a night person, the author decides to go on a stroll through the empty streets sometime between one and two a.m one Wednesday. It is while walking near a police patrolled park on this evening that Blue Tidal encountered the Smiling Man.

The author describes turning into a small side street and seeing an odd figure ‘dancing’ steadily closer. Upon closer inspection Blue Tidal noticed that the figure was clearly deranged, a lanky figure in an odd suit, with a painfully wide cartoonish grin and wild eyes cast up towards the sky.

Understandably, Blue Tidal crossed the street to avoid the Smiling Man, but it soon emerges that the Smiling Man is not so easily shaken…

As Creepypasta stories go it is extremely well written, and genuinely unnerving. Ultimately it is a deceptively simple story — a lone protagonist encounters an individual with some form of mental illness and, despite being shaken by incident, emerges safe and unharmed. It’s the sort of story that will be alarming but familiar to most city dwellers (as somebody who works in the heart of London’s Camden Town I’ve come across more than my fair share of lunatics).

This makes it easy to believe (far more so than stories of haunted video games or attacks by pale-skinned humanoid monstrosities), a trait which works very much in its favour, allowing readers to place themselves in the author’s shoes with very little imagination or suspension of disbelief required.

The story cleverly gives us plenty of details with which to form a mental image, but leaves others out, so we are now able fill in the gaps with our imagination to create something all the more frightening to ourselves. Look at the description of the Smiling Man — age; race; hair and eye colour, all of these are left out, encouraging us to paint a picture of a lunatic ourselves.

It was touches like this that saw the story become a huge hit with Creepypasta fans. It went on to receive a staggeringly high approval score among the nosleep community and eventually spread to other Creepypasta sites, such as the Creepypasta wikia where it appeared in September 2013 or Scary For Kids in October of that year. This just served to garner even more fans for the story, and in time fan art popped up on all the usual sites, including DeviantArt and Tumblr.

So big was the demand for the story that eventually filmmaker Michael Evans created a short adaptation of the story titled 2AM: The Smiling Man, which he posted to YouTube on 23 July 2013. Check it out here.

It’s a good short film and remains very faithful to the source material. Evans is clearly a talented director and he could well be a name worth keeping an eye on for horror fans in the year ahead.

If that wasn’t enough, a short while later another, longer student film was created by Benjamin Dizdarevic that expanded on the story. He posted the film to YouTube himself on 28 February 2014. It was filmed in Bosnia, with a Bosnian cast,  and added some nice spooky details, including a large sunflower and the always creepy Tiptoe Thru The Tulips by Tiny Tim, which perfectly matches the sinister Smiling Man. It is also a pretty strong short and well worth eight minutes of your time.

You can watch the film here.

In fact, the impact on The Smiling Man on Reddit is so big that, after its tremendous success at r/nosleep, it actually received its own subreddit: r/TheSmilingMan/, which was first created on 18 November 2012 and aims to actually track down the real Smiling Man.

This is no idle task, as several individuals have claimed to have bumped into Blue Tidal’s assailant and some have even claimed to be him. One such case crops up halfway through this post asking Redditors if they’ve ever read a reddit story which turned out to be about them.

However, this — like all cases in which somebody has claimed to be The Smiling Man has since been discredited by Blue Tidal.

However, r/nosleep is not the Reddit in which the story of The Smiling Man originated. It was actually first published in r/letsnotmeet on 6 April 2012, more than a fortnight before the nosleep post. For those unfamiliar with LetsNotMeet, it is a sub-reddit in which users recount real-life encounters with strangers that weren’t exactly pleasant.

Allow me to emphasise that for you, REAL-LIFE ENCOUNTERS.

That’s right, Blue Tidal says that this isn’t just one of those horror stories that claims to be based on a true story — it IS a true story.

Since achieving a level of celebrity on Reddit, Blue Tidal has since invited users of the r/SmilingMan board to ask questions about the encounter, in which further details about the story have been revealed. That the Smiling Man was middle-aged and Caucasian, and the city in which the incident occurred was Seattle, among them. You can read the post here.

Blue Tidal was also kind enough to speak with The House about the Smiling Man. However, as helpful as this redditor was, Blue Tidal is still very much a private person, even declining to confirm gender during our conversation, stating: ‘I’m not particular on the gender pronoun usage. I've been referred to as both, and I think the fact that no one knows anything about me is a good thing (for personal reasons, and for the good of the story). I like that men tend to think I'm a man, while women tend to think I'm a woman. Rather, they tend to insert themselves into the story. At least that's what I think happens, and part of what helped the story reach its quasi-urban legend status (which is more or less what creepypasta is, I suppose).’

That such a private individual was prepared to speak with me just makes the very rare interview that follows all the more exciting and insightful.

HICKEY'S HOUSE OF HORRORS: Thanks so much for speaking with me.

What convinced you to tell your story on Reddit? And what inspired you to submit it to Nosleep later?

BLUE TIDAL: I can't remember exactly how I first came upon LetsNotMeet (the place I originally posted the story), but I loved the idea of a place for people to share true encounters that left them rattled or creeped out. The problem, I found, was that most writers simply recounted the events that happened, rather than attempt to make the reader experience what they felt. So I told my story with that in mind. I wanted people to put themselves in my shoes. Regarding NoSleep, several people on LetsNotMeet recommended that I cross post the story there. I hadn't heard of it before that point, so I didn't think much of it at the time.

HHoH: Have you returned to the scene of the incident since your encounter? And have you ever seen this particular individual again?

BT: I have returned, mostly during daylight hours, but I haven't seen the smiling man since. Unless dreams count. I actually moved out of the city (and the country, in fact) for several years, but I moved back 5 or so years ago.

HHoH: Has anybody ever contacted you claiming to have also encountered the smiling man or to have any idea as to his identity? If so, have any of these accounts been convincing?

BT: Plenty of people have contacted me claiming to be the smiling man. I actually did something sneaky before posting the story, though. I changed a few minor, but important, details. So until the day comes when I'm accurately corrected, I will remain unconvinced. I can't really imagine him sitting in front of a computer reading short stories, though. Beyond that, I get messages every now and then (much less frequently than a few years back) from people claiming to have seen someone who was behaving similarly, or their cousin had, or their friend's friend. It has a very "Sasquatch" feel to it. There used to be small communities dedicated to trying to track sightings of the smiling man. It was very surreal.

HHoH: There's a fair bit of online discussion over the validity of the story. It's certainly the most convincing creepypasta story I've read. How do you feel about the debate surrounding your story?

BT: I'm in favor of skepticism, so I have no problem with the debate. If you remove the storytelling, the core of what happened is simple. Someone behaved in an bizarre, aggressive way, and it was frightening. I'm not a believer in the supernatural, so I don't see it as anything much deeper than that. Honestly, it you've spent any amount of time in a city, particularly in the middle of the night, you'll be aware that people are much more terrifying than monsters or apparitions. And they're everywhere, all around you. At all times.

HHoH: Your writing is excellent and really brings the story to life. Have you considered writing and/or publishing horror fiction under your Reddit username?

BT: Thank you. I actually have posted one fictional short called Outside, but removed it after it raised some confusion. It was an odd story where I took elements of something strange that actually happened to me and layered it with fictional elements. I like the idea of doing that, as it allows me to keep my personal life personal while continuing to tell stories based on my experiences. I've been playing with the idea of a collection of horror short stories in that vein. At the same time, however, I don't want to give the aforementioned skeptics any undue cause to doubt The Smiling Man. So who knows.

HHoH: I've seen plenty of examples of fan art, with two pretty polished short films and dozens of portraits of The Smiling Man. Have any of these impressed you? And do you feel any are especially good representations of your story?

BT: I can't say that any of the videos I've seen have been particularly accurate, but they get pieces right here and there. I feel that this story is best suited for the imagination, where the reader can make the smiling man look exactly like whatever it is that frightens them the most. Hence my minimalist description. If I went into detail about the size of his shoes or the length of his hair, I think it would detract from the telling. Honestly, my favorite videos and stories related to The Smiling Man are reaction videos. They're not very common these days, but at the height of its popularity there was an adorable video of two little girls reading the story on the bus on their way to school. And my personal favorite Reddit reply was from a kid who was so scared after reading the story that they woke their little sister up, made her read the story, and then watched cartoons with her when they were both too scared to go back to bed. Honestly, that's the most ringing endorsement I could have ever hoped for.

HHoH: Finally do you have any other stories like The Smiling Man that you might post one day? I'm sure I'm not the only fan who'd like to read more!

BT: I originally had three different personal experiences that I was considering sharing, but that was before The Smiling Man caught on. I'm definitely writing more stories, but I don't know if I'll do so under the name Blue Tidal. I'm in no hurry, either way.

The Smiling Man proves that the telling of a story is every bit as important as the tale itself in cultivating an atmosphere of dread and genuine fear. With writers as talented as some of those currently gracing the Creepypasta community, such as Blue Tidal, it’s easy to see why its popularity is going from strength to strength.

Next time I’ll be looking at the work of another skilled storyteller. Until then, keep smiling.

DARK WEB: AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CREEPYPASTA – PART 7: ABANDONED BY DISNEY

PLEASE NOTE, THIS FEATURE FIRST APPEARED AT UK HORROR SCENE HERE. ALL SUBSEQUENT CHAPTERS WILL APPEAR AT UKHS FIRST.

In last week's article in this ongoing series on Creepypasta, I examined the infamous ‘lost’ Walt Disney cartoon known as suicidemouse.avi. This week I return once more to the House of Mouse with a look at one of my very favourite Creepypasta stories — Abandoned by Disney.

On 12 December, 2012 (yes, that’s 12/12/12) a story by ‘Slimebeast’ (AKA Christopher Howard Wolf) was submitted to the Creepypasta Wikia.

You can read the story over at Slimebeast’s website here. If you haven’t read it, I’d very much recommend checking out the link above and reading it, but to summarise, it follows the misadventures of an urban explorer who decides to check out the abandoned Disney Resort of Mowgli’s Palace at Emerald Isle, North Carolina.

‘What resort at Emerald Isle?’ I hear you ask.

Well, the story goes on to tell the tale of the struggles in building Mowgli’s Palace, a luxury resort themed around the titular character from the Jungle Book, with lush greenery and the ornate and intricate attention to detail for which the Disney Corporation has become so well known.

However, the locals took exception to the construction of the resort, especially its theme, and vehemently protested the development, especially after the land was unscrupulously acquired for a bogus highway.

However, the corporation proceeded regardless of the adversity and bulldozed ahead, completing the construction of the resort and even opening it up to guests.

Then, without warning, they closed the resorts and abandoned the premises.

After the writer details the tale of the abandoned Disney Caribbean island resort of Treasure Island in Bakers Bay in the Bahamas, he goes on to tell of his decision to visit an equally fascinating location a little closer to home in NC. Upon reaching the resort he is able to gain access and he describes plenty of surreal and bizarre sights. It’s creepy and atmospheric, but things don’t take a turn for the truly nightmarish until he discovers a huge and striking snake statue. As he prepares to take a photo, the 50ft long ‘statue’ turns its head to look at him, then slithers off into the undergrowth.

Yikes.

Understandably shaken, the writer then heads into the Palace where he discovers a locked door bearing the words: MASCOTS ONLY!

Forcing access to the basement beyond the door, the writer discovers a wealth of memorabilia and interesting artefacts… and then something far, far worse than he could ever have imagined.

The story is incredibly well written, it flows naturally and realistically. It also covers all of its bases when it comes to doubters with the following passage:

Over the course of that year, I did a lot of research on the Palace resort... or rather, I tried to.

Naturally, no official Disney site or resource made any mention of the place. That had been scrubbed clean.

Even odder, however, was that nobody before myself had apparently thought to blog about the place or even post a photo. None of the local TV or Newspaper sites had one word about the place, though that was to be expected since they had all swung Disney's way. They wouldn't be out there lauding their embarassment, you know?

Recently, I learned that corporations can actually ask Google, for example, to remove links from search results... basically for no good reason. Looking back, it's probably not that nobody spoke of the resort, but rather their words were made inaccessible.’

Furthermore, Mowgli’s Palace isn't the only abandoned Disney property out there. The article mentions a resort in Bakers Bay that I’ve yet to find any serious corroborating evidence for. Most stories about it seen to stem from a single iMockery article, which is pretty convincing but is hosted on a website that deals primarily in humour. Plenty of other sources claim it isn’t real, while others back up iMockery’s feature. Conflicting evidence aside, there are at least two genuine abandoned attractions, both of which are in Florida on Bay Lake. Discovery Island was originally planned as a fun interactive zoo while Walt Disney World was still in development (long before Animal Kingdom came along), while River Country Water Park was an active park up until as recently as 2001. Both were closed suddenly and both still stand. They’re even visible to tourists from some Disney cruises.

So with these strengths going for it, the story spread like wildfire. After Slimebeast shared the story on his own site, YouTube user Mr. CreepyPasta uploaded a dramatic reading of Abandoned By Disney on 12 January 2013, which has since gone viral. The story was then linked to by the FunnyJunk site where it attracted a huge number of readers. Yet even as this story spread, Slimebeast was not resting.

On 11 January 2013 he posted the story A Few Suggestions, a transcript of the cards discovered in the staff suggestions box at Mowgli's Palace which reveal the truth about what happened in the final days of the doomed resort.

In August 2013 he followed up with the story, Room Zero, sharing the haunting stories of others who have experienced sinister goings on at Disney Parks, plus the harassment he had experienced from several mysterious individuals since telling his tale.

Finally, on 20 April 2015, Slimebeast signed off his series with the story Corruptus, which not only revealed the true nature of the nightmarish ‘Negative Mascot’ of Abandoned By Disney, but also hinted at a far wider world of terrifying occurrences caused by the world’s largest entertainment brand, with references to genuine real-life incidents.

It’s an epic story that works, much the way that suicidemouse.avi does, by subverting the safe and familiar trappings of youth and instead reawakening the long buried irrational fears of childhood. The wonderfully descriptive prose conjures up some very visceral reactions while the abrupt switch in styles between the four individual parts makes it feel that little bit more authentic — itself a key component in cultivating frights. The series has drilled deep into the consciousness of readers, with an army of fans who have created plenty of great art celebrating the story.

But surely a tale this terrifying can't actually be true? Surely the horrifying events at Mowgli's Palace aren't based on fact?

Well, no, they aren't.

They are fantastic scary stories, but they are just that — stories.

How do I know? Because I’ve spoken with Slimebeast AKA Christopher Howard Wolf personally. This extremely talented young writer was kind enough to discuss the series with me and gave me plenty of thoughtful answers.

You can read the full interview below.

THE HOUSE: Thank you so much for speaking with me. I wondered if I could start off by asking you what served as your inspiration for the story?

CHW: ‘I had written a "micropasta" for a forum thread about two-sentence pastas. It basically went:

"Deep beneath Disney World, there is a photo negative Mickey Mouse. When he removes his head, there is only blood."

‘The idea seemed like something I could write a story around, so I drew inspiration from an article I had read on iMockery.net about Disney's abandoned Bahamas resort.’

H: Which writers, horror or otherwise, do you consider yourself a fan of?"

CHW: ‘I'm a big fan of the Twilight Zone, which is probably visible in my gratuitous use of twist endings, but in terms of authors my favourites would be Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allen Poe.’

H: There's a very different feel between each chapter of the story, was it difficult to change your style for each?"

CHW: ‘Not entirely. I feel like it would've been more difficult to restrict myself to writing the same way for each chapter. I prefer to change things up and try new stuff rather than continuing one ongoing style. Abandoned by Disney is the typical "You won't believe what happened to me" pasta, A Few Suggestions is more of a "found pasta" thing, Room Zero is sort of "Campfire tales" shared from a guy who knew a guy, and of course Corruptus is basically an end cap that borrows from SCP-style "secret organization" pastas, etc.

H: How does it feel to know that people are still posting questions to the web wondering if the events of Abandoned By Disney are real? Do you feel proud that your work was so well written that it's widely being spread as fact?"

CHW: ‘It's really fun to see it spread like that, but I always feel a little guilty when someone directly asks me and I have to let them down easy.

‘The best result I've seen so far was someone actually emailing Disney about Mowgli's Palace. They got back a stock reply that basically said: "We cannot comment on this."

‘It was just a standard auto-reply sort of thing, but it lent so much credibility to the story that it was fantastic.’

H: Finally, the story Corruptus, while marked as the final chapter, suggests that there's a far wider world of creepiness that you could explore in the future? Will you return to the series in the future?

What else can your fans look forward to from you in the days ahead?

CHW: ‘I don't plan to return to the Disney pasta "universe". My hope is that ending the series with loose ends and hints of more "Corruptus" cases will inspire other authors to branch off their own original stories. It's sort of my way of passing the torch.

‘If someone out there wants to know exactly what happened with all the other Corruptus cases, they can actually come up with their own story and share it with the world.

‘As for what people can expect from me in the future, I post a new story to my web site, Slimebeast.com, every once in a while when the mood strikes me and an idea pops up. You can also find me on TooSpooky.com, a site I've launched for Creepypasta and horror fans to discuss creepy content in a relaxed non-formal atmosphere. Our mascot is a skeleton who pops out and sprays hyper-realistic blood from his hyper-realistic eyes!’

So there you have it. As Slimebeast himself says, his work is clearly influenced by Poe and Bradbury, but his wonderful Disney series, as well as the other great stories at Slimebeast.com are also reminiscent of modern horror maestro Stephen King. Those of you who are aware of how big of a fan I am of King’s work will know this is a massive compliment, and a glowing testimony to the emerging talent honing their trade in Creepypasta circles. 
Come back next week when I’ll take a look at another beautifully written web horror story.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.