21 Stories About Being Home Alone That Sound Like The Plot Of A Horror Movie

Don't read this before bed unless you want nightmares.

Alright, we've all been there — home alone, lights turned off, snuggled in bed. But then there's a noise...a thud maybe, which makes you jolt your eyes open in terror.

20th Century Fox

Yep, being spooked while you're home alone is easily one of the most relatable things out there. So, when @joeym2009 asked Reddit users, "What is the scariest thing to happen to you when you’ve been home alone?", it's no surprise that the thread quickly got a lot of answers that were equal parts hilarious and terrifying.

Fox

Here are some of the best submissions that sound like they've been taken straight from the plot of a horror movie.

1. This alarming phone call:

Fox

When I was 11 years old, I was home alone at night and got a call from the local sheriff's office. They told me they just had a dropped 911 call from this number (my house landline) and asked if I was ok.

I didn't call them and nobody else was home to call them.

—seedpig

2. This terrifying false alarm:

Nickelodeon

I was probably 14/15 and home alone at my dad's who worked nights. While making dinner, I was watching TV and suddenly heard something slam into the front door. I grabbed my pocket knife and checked it out, nothing. About 10 minutes later, I hear another bang on the front door, repeat and still nothing. It really freaked me out because we had a few houses get broken into on my street.

Turns out I didn't put enough holes into my baked potatoes and they exploded in the oven.

—theniemeyer95

3. This nightmare-inducing situation:

Walt Disney

It was about 8:30 p.m. and I heard the front door open. I called out from my room, asking why my mum and dad were home only a half hour after they left for dinner. I almost shit my pants and straight up jumped out of my bedroom window when a random male voice replied, “What? There’s somebody in here?”.

Turns out it was somebody who got hired to check on one of our neighbour’s dogs when they were on vacation and he got the wrong house address. But the raw fear that gripped me when I heard his voice still gives me nightmares.

—RanbeepTheDeep

4. This disturbing childhood event:

Fox

I was in the basement playing computer games, probably Runescape, and heard someone pull into the driveway. Naturally, I assumed it was my mother who was coming home from work. I heard the screen door open, but when no one opened the lock on the actual door, I thought I'd go upstairs to see what was going on. It was then when I saw a pair of legs walk by the basement window, which was situated about a foot above ground. I went upstairs and saw two dudes in my backyard looking at the windows and talking about how the door was locked. It was an attempted home robbery and even though everything was locked, 10-year-old me was terrified.

—jlcreverso

5. This close call:

Fremantle

The lights turned off all at once while I was in the kitchen. It was pitch black. I heard the door open. For some reason, instead of thinking "power outage", by brain went to "someone has cut the power and is coming to kill me".

I grabbed the landline, a knife and was crouched behind the kitchen counter hearing steps come through the house, trying to breath as quietly as possible. Then I hear my mom go, "Hello? Anyone home?".

By chance, the power went out at the exact moment she came in the door. That would have been an awkward hospital trip.

—sallyslingsthebooze

6. This chilling bedtime story:

DreamWorks

There had been a scratching in my ceiling for a while and my landlady was dragging her feet over having it looked into. One night, at around 2 a.m., the scratching became so bad it woke me up from a dead sleep. I tried to reassure myself that whatever it was couldn’t really get through to me, and I would be fine until I could call my landlady the next day and really press the issue.

Then some debris fell from my ceiling — whatever was up there had managed to dig a small hole into my room. I screamed and heard some scurrying away from my approximate location. Grabbed any stuff I needed for the next day, got the fuck out of there, shut the door tight behind me and slept on the couch.

I called my landlady first thing in the morning and she had someone come while I was at work that day to check it out. A mama raccoon had managed to get into the roof above my bedroom and had given birth to a litter of kits. The guy speculated that the kits were getting old enough to start wrestling around and that was likely what led to the hole in my ceiling. Luckily, it was small (the size of a quarter), so there weren’t any angry raccoons hanging out in my room when I got home.

They were able to safely trap and release the whole little family, but I started hunting for new apartments ASAP.

—TonyDanzer

7. This close shave:

ABC

I was nine years old, my sister was six. We had a babysitter who was 12, so we were alone in the sense that no adults were around. Jackass that I was, I squirted bug spray on my sister and she chased me in retaliation. I ran through some French glass doors to get away from her. She went for the knob and missed. Her arm went through one of the glass panes.

She cut herself so deep, you could see muscle, tendons and bone. It looked like a shitily cut piece of raw meat, since that's basically what it was. The babysitter held a piece of cloth on my sister's arm until my mum came home (called her right away) and took my sister to the ER. She didn't hit an artery, so it wasn't as bad as it could've been, but it was scary as fuck at the time.

—Overly_Cloverly

8. This unsettling scenario:

20th Century Fox

I was working pretty late on my computer when I got an alert from my security camera that it detected motion. I checked it and there was a person staring into my apartment window in full view of where I was working. I closed the computer, turned off the lights and went into the bathroom for a bit. Turns out being extra paranoid when someone is staring into your apartment at 2 a.m. isn’t a good combination. I checked the camera memory and the guy was there for 20 minutes, just real casual. I called the cops and the kid ran away and came back an hour later. Haven’t seen him since.

—UncomfortableLiking

9. This strange set of circumstances:

Universal Pictures

It was a hot summer and I was up late finishing off a project while my parents were at a wedding. There was complete silence — until around 1 a.m. when a random drunk dude crawled in through my window with a bottle and a blushed face. I was 20 feet away from my desk near the window and we both just stared at each other.

He was flustered and said, "Oh sorry, kid. Wrong house." and attempts to leave the way he came. He was drunk and dizzy, so I helped by pushing him out the window. I thoroughly shut it and stared at it for two hours until my parents came home.

—Shardeel

10. This nightmarish being:

Fox

I was working on a farm in Northern California. It was a start-up and I was the only person (at nights) on an isolated 650 acres. After dinner, I was walking from the lodge to my cabin. It’s dark, so all I can see is what my flashlight illuminates, plus a little on the periphery of the main beam.

All of a sudden, there were red eyes staring at me unblinkingly. I turned the light on it and all I saw was a pale, white mass behind still red eyes. Now, it takes a little bit to get me jumpy, but I sure as hell did. Picture a 6'5" man letting out an unbelievably high pitched scream and sprinting straight into his cabin.

The next day, I was talking to one of the guys that works during the day. I told him what happened and he fell over laughing. Turns out there’s such a thing as albino deer and one frequents the property regularly. Nobody thought to warn me beforehand.

—Reteperator

11. This very real situation:

Comedy Central

This happened many, many years ago when I was but a youngster. In my suburb, there had recently been a spate of break and enters. My family had gone away for the weekend, but I had stayed home because of work. I was up at midnight watching a James Bond movie. Suddenly, all the lights in the house turned off and I heard a really strange thud from my kitchen/living area.

I instantly knew it was a weird noise. Nothing in the house made any noise like that, so I was immediately suspicious. Just as I was about to get up to go and check it out, I heard it again. That's when I realised it was actually the thudding of the thick glass sliding door from the kitchen to the outdoor patio.

As I mentioned, all the lights are off, so I'm making my way through the house turning lights on. When I reached the light switch to turn on the patio light, I hit all of the lights at once — including the light at my front door (which is visible from where I'm now standing). We had those glass panels next to the front door, which I could now also see out of since the light was on. There was nobody at the patio area at this time, but through the glass panels at the front door I saw someone sprint past and out of the yard. Even though I couldn't see any detail, it was unmistakable to see that it was a person running past.

It later occurred to me that they were most likely kicking the glass patio door to try and smash it and break in. At the time, it was pretty spooky — just that sudden realisation of "that is not a normal noise".

—Prodigythe

12. This reminder to be safe:

Disney / Pixar

I lived in an apartment in a not so good part of a dangerous city with my boyfriend who worked nights. One day, our friend came over and called me to let him in our building in a hurry. Turns out this guy had been crouched by my car in the parking lot and had approached our friend and closed in on him. My friend pulled out a weapon and the guy ran off.

Upstairs, I noticed that the guy had left a green bundle near my car and assumed he would be back for it. It made me uncomfortable, so I suggested we call the cops. Five minutes later, a cop showed up to ask where the guy had gone. A SWAT team, K9 and about 10 cars then showed up and swarmed our area.

As it happens, the guy had escaped from county the night before with two other men. He was in jail for assault with a deadly weapon and repeated domestic violence offences. He had climbed the fence in the yard behind our building where our landlord kept his camper, broken into it and stayed there the night before. He had also stolen all the electronics out of it — as well as a butcher knife — and was trying to break into my car before my friend showed up.

I had been alone the night before and had taken my dog down to the yard to go to the bathroom. I noticed that the barbed wire on top of the fence had fallen down and my dog was nervous, but I brushed it off. The guy had been in the camper watching me the whole time and I never knew it.

—lunazeus

13. This scary realisation:

Paramount Pictures

It was spooky movie night at a friend's house and we were about three movies deep. I was hungry, so I went downstairs to grab some leftovers by myself. After I closed the fridge, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to see what was there, it was a ghostly white, skeletal thing just staring at me from outside the patio, with shimmering hazy lights pulsing behind it.

I fucking freaked, dropped my food and ran up the stairs babbling about someone or something in the backyard. Turns out it was just my own reflection mixed with the lights and steam from the hot tub outside, but I’ve never been so scared in my life.

—CouchCreepin

14. This spine-chilling encounter:

The CW

My parents let me walk home from school alone when I was in fourth grade. Looking back now, that probably wasn't the best decision, but anyway — I get home and begin to pass the time before my parents get home at five. So, I'm doing my usual routine: Mountain Dew, Doritos and Toonami on Cartoon Network. After about three minutes, I hear a knock at the door. 99% of the time, I stay quiet and just wait for whoever it is to leave. But for some reason, I actually go to the door and call out, "Who is it?".

A stranger replies, "Hey! It's your buddy, Mike." I don't have a grown ass buddy called Mike, I'm in fourth grade, so my shit goes COLD. Heart in my throat, goosebumps — I'm terrified.

Dude says again, "Hey! Open the door, we gotta go!". And then he jiggles the door handle really hard. Then he knocks again — bam, bam, bam — and turns the door handle again.

I'm still close to the door and haven't moved because I didn't want him to hear my footsteps. After a minute of silence, I heard a car door close and him drive away. Even then, I still freaked the fuck out for the next hour because I realised he obviously followed me home that day — and I had no idea I was being tailed.

—bodhasattva

15. This goosebump-inducing read:

NBC / Hulu

This was late at night — must've been around 1 a.m. I was watching YouTube and my phone got an alert. My phone is connected to the security system and whenever something happens, it gives an alert for a few seconds before ringing so that you can cancel if you want to. So, I’m home alone and I decided to cancel the alarm.

I slowly got out of my room and creeped down with a Renaissance fair knife. I heard a thud — it sounded like someone trying to quietly jump down from a higher place without making much noise. Then some footsteps and creaking, now coming from my kitchen. I slowly inched towards my kitchen, adrenaline pumping. Knife in one hand, I turned the light on with the other, prepared to fight for my life. Yeah, turned out it was my cat that I forgot had existed because I was so scared.

—Effect3692

16. This straight out of a horror movie scenario:

Herts-Lion International Corp. / Shudder

I was 12 years old and my dad was at his girlfriend's house. I went into my room to take a shower. I always put a chair under the door handle in my room because it didn't have a lock. Now, my grandma loved giving me porcelain dolls and she decorated my room with shelves that had these dolls on them.

Before I got into the shower, all of the dolls were on their shelves. When I exited my bathroom, one of them was 10 feet across the room, face down on the ground. The doll must have flown across the room to have landed where it did. It also wasn't broken. Needless to say, my grandma was sad when I packed up all the dolls and placed them in the attic for safekeeping.

—Ibelieveindinosaurs2

17. This unfriendly visit:

Warner Bros / Shudder

Just last week, I woke up to someone in my house walking up the stairs to my bedroom. It was about 1 p.m. and I was sleeping. In my haste, I didn't even grab my bat. I whipped open the door and it's my ex-best friend, who I've blocked on every social media site. She starts yelling at me for not responding to her and how she misses me.

I don't know what scared me more — the split second I realised there was an intruder or that someone I know would take it upon themselves to trespass to force me to talk to them.

—hanahmontana1

18. This narrow escape:

AD Week / CBS

My family's house was sort of far out from town. We had neighbours, but they are few and far between. My room also had a large window facing out to the driveway.

Anyway, I was home alone, cleaning my room, and singing "We Are The Champions" extremely loudly (as well as playing it on my TV). I looked up and suddenly see a man power walking up my driveway VERY quickly. It's obvious no one is home but me, since there aren't any cars in the driveway. So, I ran to the front door (which was open because it was hot AF outside), locked it and closed and locked my window.

Turns out bro-friend did not like that. I called 911 because he was still approaching my house and I was getting scared. While on the phone with the 911 operator, he started banging on my front window by the door and then the door itself. He then tried kicking in the door and breaking the window. I went and hid in my mum's closet with a knife until the cops showed up.

By the time they got there, the man was gone. They found him about an hour later walking up and down my street. He told them that he "heard my pretty singing voice and just wanted to say hi". Plus, he was drunk, but admitted to being sober at the time of the incident and that he only started drinking "after I rejected him". He also told them that he planned to come in and "have some fun" with me after he found out that I was home alone and that he was waiting to come back after dark.

—InvisibleBookend

19. This childhood horror story:

Paramount Pictures

When I was younger, I had been warned not to answer the door for anyone. But one time when I was home alone, a sales guy starts banging on the door. He does this for around six minutes. I guess I hadn't muted the TV fast enough because he starts screaming, "I know you're home alone in there!". I just about died.

—HatGuyProductions

20. This spine-chilling moment:

TV Peru

I was home alone during the "clown incidents" in 2016. One of them knocked on the front door of my house. I was 10 at the time and called 911. The police then came to my house and stayed with me 'til my mum could get home.

—Hi_Im_Creepy777

21. And lastly, this long read — which is bound to give you shivers all over.

Fox

I used to love sitting on a swing in my backyard at night and listening to music. It was, and still is, very cathartic because I basically live right on the edge of a fairly large and densely wooded area. Anyways, one night, around maybe 10 p.m. or so, I decided to go sit on the swing. I gathered my jacket, headphones and a beer, and walked outside. Immediately upon stepping onto my driveway, I got this really weird feeling, like I was being watched. Thinking nothing of it, I started walking towards the swing set.

Every step that I took, that uneasy feeling got stronger and stronger, until it had almost reached panicky levels. I could feel it in my stomach, my body suddenly felt very cold and at this point, I accepted that I was subconsciously alarmed about something. I came to a complete stop about 10 feet away from the swings and began to look around and at the woods. Something was seriously wrong. It felt different being outside.

I tried to force the weirdness out of my mind, but as I settled down onto the swing, I was afraid. I got through maybe half of a song, and somehow this feeling had continued to get stronger. It felt urgent. I've never been worried like that before. But in that moment, it hit me like an epiphany — I felt like prey.

I turned my music off and just sat, beer forgotten, looking around and at the woods. Physically, I couldn't take it. I could barely breathe, so I jumped off the swing and SPRINTED back inside, closed and locked the door, checked all the doors and windows, closed all the curtains, turned on all the lights and surrounded myself with an arsenal of weapons. I could still feel it, but it slowly faded.

The next morning, I saw my friend out by his car. So, I walked over and started telling him about my experience last night. Apparently, and he lives two houses down from me, he walked outside to stretch before his run that night and felt a weird vibe. As he walked to the end of his driveway, it got stronger and he started getting nervous. He started running and stopped after a few feet, turned his music off and scanned the woods. Then, he started running again, got to my driveway and was so scared, uncomfortable and freaked out that he just decided to call it quits for the night. He also said that he literally felt like prey being stalked by something evil. It was exactly, almost to the tee, how I'd felt.

I have absolutely no idea what it was and it hasn't happened again since. But now I only swing facing the woods and I carry a bat down there with me, just in case.

—Eltotsira

Note: Responses from Reddit have been edited for length and/or clarity.

You, attempting to go to sleep after reading this post:

Fox

What other spooky moments have you experienced while being home alone? Leave them in the comments below!