Things/ places that inexplicably give you the creeps...

[nuitdesetoiles]

Ice cream Vans
Mime artists
Brighton
Glastonbury
(Apologies to residents of the above 2 places)

What an interesting thread! A few of these chime with me.

Something weird happened to me in the French cathedral town of Amiens. I’m not ‘woo’ at all and certainly not into past lives. But I had the strongest feeling of ‘home’ and having been there before. To the point that I knew my way around, having never been there ( I have a famously terrible sense of direction). I also got unexpectedly tearful when we had to leave. My grandfather was stationed nearby during the Great War and I have wondered if that’s relevant.

@InTropicalTrumpsLand

Not a place, but the easiest thing a series or film has to do to get me all creeped out is get someone wearing those sclera contacts that completely cover the white of the eyes. Not seeing the whites unsettles me so profoundly that I wonder if there's a biological reason for it.

Snakes, crocodiles......large things that might eat you narrowing their eyes to see you better so no white showing?

I agree about Bristol, the city centre had a very weird vibe. I couldn't put my finger on it, it just felt weird.

As a student in Leeds, some friends lived in some large, shared houses with enormous, high ceilinged rooms and over large doorways. The proportions just seemed so off and unsettling.

Yy also to the Underground Hospital in Jersey (I imagine the one in Guernsey is pretty much the same). Not helped by the creepy mannequins that were supposed to show the functions of the rooms.

The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy's weird voice, the utterly creepy munchkins, those flying monkey things, absolutely everything about it. The overly bright intense colours, everything seeming hyper real.

York Minster. The outside stonework has such an aged feel to it, and is beautiful to look at - but inside it is utterly soul-less, Godless, feels completely devoid of love or humanity. I feel desolate each time I go near.

Coniston Water. I don't know if my dad told me the story of Donald Campbell because I felt creeped out (I was quite young at the time) or I felt creeped out because of the story. Sad place

Driving through Glen Coe for the first time by myself I approached a bend and developed a quite sudden and severe headache. I saw a white cottage and thought "There's Jimmy Saville's house", drove past it and the headache went away. I've passed it since with no problems but wasn't alone any other time.

I've never felt comfortable on the Isle of Skye, there's a darkness in my mind when I think of it.

Since childhood I have been inexplicably afraid of coal mines. I remember accidentally watching a bit of a film on TV where some miners are trapped, called something like The Tommy-knockers. I was horrified and terrified, even though I didn't really have any concept of a coal mine. I was subsequently taken to Beamish on a day out, but had to be taken away. I am not afraid of other caves/ tunnels.

Three generations back and beyond my family were all Yorkshire coal miners and I have wondered whether I have some kind of genetic memory of something. Animals have genetic memory, so I don't know why we think we wouldn't.

Talking about eyes, I have dark hair and v pale blue eyes and I remember years ago a friend saying she couldnt look me in the eye as my eyes freaked her out as she felt they were looking straight through her. A boyfriend once described them as being like searchlights. I obviously never saw it myself until, the time when, I was in a toilet in a train station and it was a very bright day. I looked in the mirror and my pupils were so small because of the bright light, my eyes looked almost white! Creepy...

@reefedsail vicarious trauma that goes through generations of families is definitely a thing and a big psychology research area.

Pendle Hill - dark and foreboding - ugh!

Edzell - there's just something "off" about it.

Lyndhurst in the New Forest. In fact, most places in the New Forest. The whole area feels off and makes me very uncomfortable.

Also Milton Keynes. I know it's unoriginal but it really is such a weird town. I don't know how anyone can bear to live there. It's so artificial, it's just wrong.

Woolwich - Feels like the edge of the Earth
Motorway services during the night - Always bring me out in Melancholia

Glastonbury for me. I parked and walked to the main street and had to turn around within 5 mins. I was completely unsettled.

Ventriloquist dummies and porcelain dolls are really creepy.

St Annes near Blackpool has a feeling of sadness.

Yes we only stayed a very short time in Glastonbury. The energy is very oppressive and intense. Also dd was only 2 and all the "wizards" etc in the main square didn't seem to understand boundaries and were being completely over familiar with her (likely spannered on special brew and ketamine) and it was completely freaking me out!

OMG forgot about ventriloquist dummies... So popular in the 80s! Emu, basil brush and Orville etc fairly creepy too.

I've heard so, so many people say this stuff about Glastonbury. What is going on behind the scenes? It has to be more than the alleged ley lines (if you believe in that sort of stuff). What's happening in the background?

Magicians at grown up parties, hired in as an ice-breaker. Quite big corporate type parties BTW. Being duped by a smooth talker makes me feel very creeper out.

@tectonicplates I feel the same way about Lyndhurst and the New Forest. Very creepy.

Thank goodness it's not just me!

I broke down on the main road through Savarnake Forest in the very early hours of a wet and windy Sunday morning many many years ago. My little KA shuddered to a stop right next to the ancient ok that's held together with metal bands. I managed to get it started again within about 5 minutes but it was the longest, darkest and scariest 5 minutes of my life.

Glastonbury gives me a headache.

There is a place called the Kenidjack valley in the far west of Cornwall. Absolutely stunningly beautiful and usually very peaceful and calming. I stayed in a cottage nearby last year and took my camera down through the valley to take early morning seascape shots one day. Got halfway down and just started to feel utterly sick with fear. I noped on out of there so fast. Absolutely no logical reason, just a horrid feeling.

Not a place but a piece of music.

Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells, I can't bear it, I find it deeply upsetting.

Things- pylons and wind turbines
Places- cromford, Buxton most of the peak district tbh has an off feeling to it I really love the peak district but it does have a creepy vibe! Cromford is like something from a Stephen king even the church is wrong! Mablethorpe is odd too felt drained there!

Oh and Poundbury near Dorchester. It reminds me of that programme "The Prisoner". Empty, soulless and a very oppressive atmosphere.

That might have something to do with the stipulations to live there however.