Ah nighttime, my personal favourite time of day.
All is quiet, annoying people are asleep, there’s no light coming through the window
to glare off my screens…
However, this PM presence is really just when I’m feeling comfortable.
You know, in my room with a good book or a movie, or maybe at a party with some friends.
However, there are definitely places that I would NOT want to be at night.
That's when all the spooks and spectres come out to cause mayhem!
I’d really rather not find myself on the receiving end of a malevolent ghost, or a
bloodthirsty ghoul.
Plus, you gotta factor in your limited nighttime vision, the potential for full moons and other
monster power ups, and the fact that nothing is ever what it seems, and you’ve got a
recipe for a bad time.
Hello horror heads, it's your horror host Keegan Hughes once again.
Welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTune, Top5ScaryVideos.
If you couldn’t tell, today we’re going to talk about some scary places, and reasons
you should probably avoid them at night.
In other words: the Top 5 Scariest Places You Should Never Visit at Night.
Before we get started I want to remind you to give us a big thumbs up down below, and
subscribe if you haven’t already for more scary content.
Let's get started.
NUMBER FIVE: NAGORO, JAPAN If you were to travel out to this sleepy valley
village in remote Japan, you might see a lot of elderly folks working the land, putting
up signposts, playing with children.
However, your eyes would be playing tricks on you!
A majority of the hundreds of Nagoro residents are actually creepy human-sized dolls.
They’re everywhere.
They fill the schoolhouse, they toil in the fields, they hang out in the town.
You’re pretty likely to wave hello to one before realizing that you’ve just extended
a friendly greeting to a scarecrow.
The town had around 300 human residents at one point, but as is the case in a lot of
Japanese villages the population has dwindled.
Young people have left for better jobs in bigger cities, and many of the elderly residents
have passed away.
These days, there are only about 30 people living in the village.
If these dolls ever gained sentience, I’d say it would be over for humans in Nagoro.
So you might be wondering where the dolls come from.
They couldn’t have just appeared one day, could they?
Lucky for us, they do have a rational creator.
Tsukimi Ayano makes the dolls, and recently she’s started inviting people to workshops
to make even more.
Ayano moved back to Nagoro after living in Osaka for most of her life.
The first doll she ever made was actually supposed to be a scarecrow to keep birds away
from her house.
The original was modelled after her dad, and soon she was making similar figures in the
image of all sorts of villagers.
It’s an interesting memorial project; filling up an empty village with dolls who look like
deceased residents.
Maybe someday the spirits will return to their new vessels, and live in the village as they
did when they were alive.
A village of living dolls, yikes.
I can only imagine what it would be like at night:
Dolls moving in and out of your peripheral vision, as you hear children singing by the
schoolyard.
Off in the distance, a hammer echoes through the valleys.
You hear muffled shuffling behind you.
The dolls are tired of being made of straw and paper, they want a real human body again.
I’ll never look at a scarecrow the same way again.
NUMBER FOUR: BEELITZ-HAILSTATTEN HOSPITAL Abandoned buildings are usually bad news at
night.
Nothing good could ever come of visiting a crumbling edifice during the witching hour.
You never know who, or what, could be lurking.
Abandoned hospitals are even worse news, considering all of the death and pain and suffering that
have transpired within.
And this abandoned hospital in particular has a whole host of reasons not to visit at
night.
The Beelitz-Hailstatten has a long history behind its haunting.
Way way back in 1898, it was used as a sanatorium for lung diseases.
You know, tuberculosis and the like.
As it housed those poor breathing-impaired Germans, I’m certain it saw its fair share
of suffering and death.
Medical science has come a long way, but back the Tuberculosis was pretty much a painful
death sentence.
A lot of this would have happened before the iron lung was invented in the 1920’s too,
so it’s not looking too good for these patients.
So we have an old sanitorium full of ghosts with bad lungs, what else?
It then became a field hospital for treating German casualties during the First World War.
This was around the time that machine guns and mustard gas were first being used, so
I would imagine it was quite gruesome.
Now we’ve got soldiers both young and old going ghost in the Beelitz.
At one point it even housed a young, injured Adolph Hitler, blinded by gas and wounded
in the leg.
Then, in 1945 the Russians occupied it during World War Two, taking it a field hospital
once again.
So we have lung patient ghosts, German soldier ghosts, Russian soldier ghosts, that's a pretty
wild mix of spirits.
No not THAT kind of Russian spirit.
Nowadays, the complex is shut down, and the elements have started to take over.
The forest is creeping in, and it has become dilapidated as hell.
They give tours of some of the main areas with a canopy pathway, which is kinda lame.
But don’t worry, they’ve hidden the good stuff from the public.
An intrepid adventurer could sneak past the barricades and potentially run into some phantoms
in the crumbling hallways.
But I would never suggest that you do that, that would be illegal!
NUMBER THREE: McKAMEY MANOR It’s very likely you’ve already heard
of this one quite recently.
It went viral for offering twenty thousand dollars to anyone who can complete it, with
a five hundred dollar penalty for every failed challenge and use of profanity.
Don’t get too excited, you haunted house aficionados, because this is no regular spook
show.
McKamey manor is an extreme haunted house that operates year round.
Over twenty four thousand people are chomping at the bit for a chance to test their mettle.
Yet, not one single person has made it through!
How is this possible you ask?
Well, it’s literal torture!
Visitors can expect to be drenched in fake blood, screamed at by actors, locked in small
freezers, put underwater, dragged across concrete, and more!
In fact, there is a pretty rigorous screening process that involves one of the most insane
waivers I have ever seen.
Actually, this waiver is probably the most insane thing experienced lawyers have ever
seen too.
Here are a few excerpts just to give you an idea of what exactly is going on.
-once participant enters MM there is no quitting unless serious physical or psychological injury
is present.
-injuries may occur during their tour of MM, which may include, but not limited to, head,
neck, and back injuries, death, stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain aneurysms, cerebral or
retinal hemorrhage, subdural hematoma, loss of consciousness, whiplash, harmful heart
reactions, nausea, headache, dizziness, lacerations, broken or sprained bones, torn ligaments,
bleeding wounds, scrapes and/or cuts, heatstroke, or downing
-their tour may include the use of hypodermic needles, zappers, tasers, or dog shock collars;
a nail may pierce their hand; their hand may be smashed with tools; medication may be given
that induces hallucinations or sedatives given in pill form or by hypodermic; They may be
fish hooked which may inadvertently cause rippage to the mouth area; They may have a
tooth extracted without novocain; They will be participating in various medieval torture
devices such as knife throwing while strapped to a spinning wheel; MK ultra (mind control)
may be used; Water torture may be used.
There has been some controversy around McKamey Manor’s hiring practices, and how they screen
their participants as well.
So I would say just stay away in general, unless you’re looking to hear the screams
of people being tortured.
And if you’re thinking of trying it out yourself?
Just don’t!
I’m looking out for you here.
NUMBER TWO: TRANS-ALLEGHENY LUNATIC ASYLUM This West Virginian manor opened with only
the best of intentions.
Thomas Story Kirkbride was a doctor and crusader for the mentally ill who founded the American
Psychiatric Association.
His goal was to treat asylum patients in a more humane way, for better results.
He built the asylum to offer the patients more freedom, light and fresh air.
If everything went to plan, it would have been wonderful!
However, after being built, mental health illnesses were diagnosed more often, and there
were major stigmas surrounding this.
As such, the asylum was totally overpopulated.
Five patients in every one-patient room.
Malnourishment on a wide scale.
These factors exacerbated the mental illnesses that the patients already had.
By 1938 the asylum was six times over capacity, with patients running wild and orderlies unable
to stay in control.
At its peak, the 300-person facility was holding 2600 patients.
This meant that patients were sleeping on floors in freezing rooms, the windows were
filthy, the walls disintegrating.
Many patients were being locked in cages, and the more unruly ones were being lobotomized
through Walter Freeman’s icepick method.
That's when an icepick-shaped instrument is pushed through your eye socket to disconnect
the frontal lobe and renders you functional but totally zombie-like.
By the time the asylum closed, the only wing that was expanded was the graveyard.
Those poor, poor patients.
Tours are given of the main parts of the asylum, and many ghost hunters claim to feel the presence
of hundreds who died in awful conditions.
There are ghost stories abound, including ones about a little girl who was born and
lived in the asylum, and a mysterious woman floating through the kitchen.
It has been said that if you’re in the right room at night, you can hear the shouts and
hollers of patients from years gone by.
NUMBER ONE: THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS If you didn’t already know, there are kilometers
of limestone passageways underneath Paris, filled to the brim with human remains.
After the city’s graveyards overflowed, allowing corpses to spill into the streets,
a military officer decided that piling all the excess bodies and remains down in the
limestone tunnels was a good idea!
So now we have underground passages lovingly decorated with the bones of Parisian ancestors.
How fun.
Human remains are pretty scary, and being in dark tunnels full of them can’t be too
fun.
But there are way more scary stories about the catacombs than one would expect.
About two kilometers are open to the public on a regular day, but beyond the state-sanctioned
skeletons there is so much more to explore.
It is very easy to get lost among the tunnels and pits and bones, and many people actually
have done just that.
In 2017 a couple teenagers were lost for three days, and they were found suffering from hypothermia.
Even scarier is the famous uncovered video camera story.
In the early 90’s, a group of catacomb explorers found a beat-up old video camera.
There was footage still inside the camera of a man who was very clearly lost and alone
in the catacombs.
He seems to be going mad trying to find his way out of the massive network by the light
of his camera.
It ends with him dropping the camera on the ground, and to this day nobody knows what
happened to him.
Poor guy should have brought a map.
Some say the movie “As Above, So Below,” was inspired by this event.
There are many more stories of secret societies, mysterious voices, and underground swimming
holes that would be enough to creep out the most cynical of thrill-seekers.
Maybe someday we can take a deeper dive into the horror that is the Catacombs.
And that’s it for today!
Would you ever spend a night at one of these locations?
Are there any spots you think are scarier?
Let me know what you think down in the comments.
As always, make sure to give us a big thumbs up, and subscribe for more scary stuff.
I’ll see you next time, and thanks for watching.