Are you one of those people who loves being scared — but, you know, in that not-quite-real way? There’s nothing like the thrill of watching a scary video. And YouTube has plenty of them that are short and free and will totally satisfy your adrenaline craving. 

Plus, watching on YouTube beats spending a ton of money to watch the latest horror flick on the big screen through your fingers.

SEE ALSO: 17 terrifying creepypastas guaranteed to keep you up at night

In the spirit of Halloween, we’ve scoured the creepier corners of YouTube to gather some of the spookiest videos and web series out there. Take a look for yourself, or maybe with a friend or two. These just might give you nightmares for days. 

1. Marble Hornets

Marble Hornets is a YouTube series based off the Slender Man mythos/creepypasta. The story follows Troy Wagner, a young man who tries to piece together the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his friend Alex Kralie after Kralie abruptly quit a film they were working on.

The series began in 2010, and a lot of the early entries show sightings of “The Operator,” a creature who bears an uncanny resemblance to Slender Man. Things only get more terrifying as Wagner continues to dig deeper into his friend’s past.

The series ended in 2014, but there are 87 main entries to binge if you’re feeling up to getting super spooked.

2. day four.wmv

This video is a part of the BEN Drowned creepypasta by YouTuber Alex Hall. According to the story, a boy named Matt unknowingly picks up a haunted copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and finds it’s riddled with creepy glitches. 

A statue in the game who represents the malevolent spirit in the cartridge follows the player every time Matt boots up the game. The ghost goes by the name of “BEN,” and he eventually causes Matt to lose his sanity, as the haunting and glitches get progressively worse each time he starts the game.

Videos of the spooky gameplay were uploaded onto Matt’s channel (now Alex’s) to add another layer to the written creepypasta. Take a look if you’re brave enough. 

3. Fighting Buried Alive

This video is based off a creepypasta that said there was an unused model in the original Pokémon games that can only be uncovered through a series of steps. The model in question was a zombie-like figure called “BURIEDALIVE” that fought the player at the top of the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town.

The video is a recording of the rumored battle. If the player loses the fight, the screen cuts to an image of the zombie creature chomping down on the player. Not to worry, Nintendo would never program something that terrifying in a children’s game — so it’s all fake.

4. Username666

This terrifying video is also based off a creepypasta rumor that said there was a haunted YouTube channel that can be accessed by typing “youtube.com/666” into your address bar. An error screen will show up saying that the user “doesn’t exist.” 

However, according to the legend and this video, if you refresh the page enough times, the link will actually work. After agreeing to a popup that asks if you want to view the page, you’ll be taken to a horrifying channel filled with a lot blood-red images and creepy hands crawling all over the screen.

If you want to watch the video, be sure to prep yourself for the jump scare at the end!

5. I Feel Fantastic

This is Tara. She was apparently built by a man named John Bergeron, who was on a mission to build the world’s first pop star android.

Except Tara is actually pretty scary. A YouTube user named Creepyblog uploaded a video of the android eerily singing “I feel fantastic, hey hey hey” and “run.” It’s safe to say she won’t be making it in the industry anytime soon.

A ton of theories about Tara have sprung up — the most popular being that the Tara’s creator was a murderer, and Tara wore his victim’s clothing. Of course it’s far more than likely this android was just a scrapped project who continues to haunt us.

6. Any of blameitonjorge’s videos

Blamitonjorge is a YouTuber who talks about anything and everything creepy on the internet. A lot of his video center on conspiracy theories, scary rituals, and lost episodes of children’s cartoon shows.

The video above covers some really bizarre and unnerving broadcast interruptions that have occurred throughout the country in the past few decades. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart.

7. Hypno’s Lullaby

This video is based on a Pokémon theory/creepypasta that paints Hypno, a dream-eating Pokémon, as a kidnapper. The theory comes from Hypno’s Pokédex entry, which states: “There once was an incident in which it took away a child it hypnotized.”

That birthed this awful song about the Pokémon luring children away from their parents to feast on their dreams. The singing is pretty terrible, but the lyrics will make anyone’s skin crawl.

8. Lights Out

*JUMPSCARE WARNING*

This short horror film captures feeling like you’re not alone in your house at night. Hopefully none of us ever have to encounter the creature this lady comes face to face with at the end…

9. Paris Catacombs Lost Man Footage

This chilling footage was part of several documentaries — including an ABC Family Halloween special about the Catacombs of Paris — that were broadcast in the early 2000s. 

The Catacombs, a popular tourist attraction in France, contain dozens of tunnels filled with human bones, in which anyone can easily get lost if they’re not careful. The footage in this video is allegedly from a camera that a man dropped in the Catacombs in the 1990s; it was later supposedly discovered by a group of people exploring the tombs. 

It’s really creepy to contemplate why exactly this guy was running in panic.

10. Salad Fingers

This classic series was extremely popular for its unnerving animation, spooky post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and the creepy titular character, “Salad Fingers.” In the opening episode, Salad Fingers looks for the perfect spoon to rub his fingers against in order to feel some sort of pleasure.   

11. Miss Shaye St. John

This creepy relic from the early days of YouTube never fails to make me squirm in my seat. Meet Miss Shaye St. John — a former actress made of mannequin parts after a serious accident left her disfigured — who appears in multiple videos uploaded by surrealist artist Eric Fournier. 

In the video, Miss Shaye makes weird hand movements while gurgling out strange syllables. Another mannequin humanoid walks into the room and pesters Miss Shaye to teach them “the hand thing,” and both of them continue to slam their wooden hands together.

It’s guaranteed to send shivers down your spine.

12. Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

What starts off as an children’s educational song turns into your own personal nightmare factory. In the video, three puppets learn what it means to be “creative” from a talking notepad. But all three of them get much more than they bargained for when the video jumps to surreal scene filled with blood and guts.

Just remember “green is not a creative color,” and you should be fine watching this video … hopefully.

13. Unwind With the Sweeties

This bizarre YouTube video comes from a public access television show from the ’90s called “Unwind with the Sweeties.” According to Lost Media Wiki, a married couple named Gus and Emma Schlishki were the masterminds behind the petrifying show.

In the video, a couple wearing green and yellow ski masks and glasses with painted eyes are reading together. The husband (in the green mask) is perusing a book that has suggestive images of women. Then the scene cuts to another woman in a yellow ski mask talking about her day in a strange accent, all while squealing “ooooh,” in between sentences. 

What the video lacks in scare factor, it more than makes up for in creepiness. No one seems to know what happened to The Sweeties after the show abruptly stopped airing. I’m sure we’re all OK with that.

“It’s not like in the movies. It’s better, because it’s real.”

From a small mountain of adorable, quotable moments to the iconic and timeless dreamboat that is Peter Kavinsky, Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before gave us all a lot to love this past summer. 

Now, in the heart of October 2018, the gift of protagonist Lara Jean Covey keeps on giving. This paradigm of effortlessly sophisticated teenage fashion—seriously, has the Peter Pan collar ever looked this good on anyone?—is inspiring dozens of fabulous Halloween costumes and author Jenny Han is taking notice. 

Han published the film’s source material, also titled To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, as a YA novel in April of 2014. She later executive produced Netflix’s adaptation of the high school love story and, with help from costume designer Rafaella Rabinovich and actress Lana Condor, brought Lara Jean to life. 

Since then, tons of young women have taken to treating Netflix’s imagining of Lara Jean as both a style icon and fictitious big sister. Naturally, in traditional autumnal fashion, that also means plenty of fans are honoring her through, you guessed it, Halloween costumes. 

SEE ALSO: This Banksy-themed costume just hands down shredded Halloween

Han discovered the array of Lara Jean looks on social media this past weekend and instantly began sharing them on her Twitter account. 

“It was such a dark weekend and I started seeing them pop up in my feed,” Han told BuzzFeed News. “I started sharing them just because it was bringing me a little bit of sunlight.” 

Han also noted the importance of Lara Jean costumes in the landscape of representative options for young Asian girls. 

“As an Asian American woman, I think there’s a sense of belonging to something when I saw those photos. Belonging to something, but also knowing that something belongs to you. And, for me, I think that was what made me feel really emotional about it.”

In honor of the legendary Lara Jean and fearless Jenny Han, here are our (and some of Han’s) favorite To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before Halloween looks.

This horizontal striped beauty

A cutie with a red skirt and kicks

This gal who completely nailed the movie poster

Everyone recreating that selfie magic

This Lara Jean and drinkable yogurt fan

And, of course, the Lara Jean/Croft crossover you didn’t know you needed

Happy Halloween, TATBILB fans! It’s a Lara Jean Halloween. Just remember: the letters are out. 

Ever since The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was announced by Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the question of how and when the two shows — both starring characters from Archie comics — would cross over. 

Now that Sabrina’s entire first season is out on Netflix, that question has been answered in a way that makes literally everything else about both shows way more complicated than it has to be. 

SEE ALSO: ‘The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ takes a while to cast its spell, but the magic is still there

While characters on Sabrina name-dropped Riverdale High as early on as Episode 2, it took until Episode 7 for a real Riverdale character to show up in the flesh. Ben Button, who has primarily been a background character on Riverdale for its first two seasons, makes a cameo as Miss Wardwell’s pizza delivery boy. The way his scene ends, with the evil Wardwell luring him into her house with the intention to eat him, is meant to emphasize the cannibalistic nature of the Greendale witches…but there’s one big problem with that. 

According to Riverdale, Ben is already dead. And there’s so simple explanation as to why he’s suddenly resurrected. 

Ben dies in the early episodes of Riverdale Season 3 when he throws himself out of a hospital window out of deference to the mysterious Gargoyle King, a cult figure from a board game that seems to encourage teens to take their own lives. The timing of his death is shortly after Labor Day, which is in September. 

Miss Wardwell’s pizza delivery, however, takes place on or around Thanksgiving, three months after Labor Day. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is explicitly said to take place in “This Year,” which would only allow Ben to both deliver a pizza on Thanksgiving and die around Labor Day if Season 3 of Riverdale takes place the year after Season 1 of Sabrina, in 2019.

On its face, that theory does make sense. Before Season 3 of Riverdale, Ben Button seemed like a normal kid who worked in a movie theater and showed up in the background of some party scenes. At the start of the third season he was in a game-based cult that worshipped a gargoyle devil in the forest. Maybe Ben had a horrible supernatural experience that made him susceptible to the evils of Gryphons & Gargoyles. 

An experience like nearly being eaten by a witch while on his pizza delivery rounds? The plot thickens.

The idea that Riverdale has somehow been taking place a year in the future solely to preserve the continuity of a background character’s magic trauma is pretty hard to swallow and, not to mention, dumb as hell.

But wait. Come on. The idea that Riverdale has somehow been taking place a year in the future solely to preserve the continuity of a background character’s magic trauma is pretty hard to swallow and, not to mention, dumb as hell. There has to be another explanation. 

Got it!

Zombie Ben. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa himself has (kind of) supported the idea that the Ben seen in Sabrina may not be of this world. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, he said of the cameo that “It seemed like [Ben’s death] was pretty final, but yet there he is in Greendale. But in Greendale, everyone pops up — the dead don’t stay dead long in Greendale.” 

So Ben died in Riverdale and was maybe buried in Greendale (did he live there? Why didn’t he enroll at Baxter High then?), and someone or something reanimated him for the grand purpose of making sure the pizza shop had someone to make good on the “delivery in 30 minutes or it’s free” promise on their flyer. Then he got eaten by a witch. 

Ugh, none of this makes sense.

The only other thing Aguirre-Sacasa says about Ben’s appearance is that it “suggests a very deep, deep mythology where time and space bends,” which could mean that he’s playing a long game where the parallel stories of Riverdale and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina exist in adjacent universes where the life/death states of certain characters are determinant on factors like the existence of witchcraft or other unknowable constants…

…or it could mean that he literally didn’t think about it and just thought having Ben show up was cute. 

As far as mysteries go, it feels unlikely that this one is going to be solved on Riverdale or Sabrina, but those who love cameos and crave continuity will surely be scratching their heads about it for months to come. 

In the meanwhile, RIP (???) Ben Button. 

Video games suck at blackjack. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a convenient target, being the latest and most high-profile offender. But video game blackjack hasn’t ever been done right in my recollection. And it’s because every game gets a central component wrong: The key to blackjack, the thing that makes it interesting, is the betting. Not the rules.

SEE ALSO: ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ review: Great art at great cost

So let’s talk first about those rules, the absolute basics of blackjack. How each card works, what the goal is, how a typical hand flows.

Blackjack basics

The objective in blackjack is to get a set of cards whose sum is 21. Less than that is OK. More than that is a bust — a lost hand. Numbered cards, 2 through 10, count as the number printed on the card. Face cards also count as a 10. Ace can be either a 1 or an 11, whichever you choose. So if you have a 9 card and two Aces, you have a 21: 9 + 11 Ace + 1 Ace. That’s great.

At the start of a hand, you get two cards and the house gets two cards. Your cards are both visible, but you can only see one of the house’s cards. When it’s your turn — setting aside advanced strategies for a moment — you can choose to either hit (take another card) or stand (end your turn). 

Once you stand, it’s the house’s turn to either stand or hit. They don’t make that decision themselves; it’s dictated by the cards they’re holding. You win a hand if the house goes bust or if the house is forced to stand on a number that’s lower than your own card total.

Now that you know the rules, let’s talk about how blackjack is actually played in practice.

How to play blackjack like you’re in a casino

When you sit down to play blackjack, the only person you’re playing against is the dealer, who represents the house. Everyone else at the table influences the way the cards fall — if someone right before you hits and gets the Ace you need, that’s one less Ace in the deck that could possibly drop — but they’re not the enemy.

When it’s your turn in blackjack, the one house card you can see is as much of an influence on what you do as the cards you’re holding. The dealer always goes after every player’s turn is over, but your decision to hit or stand is based entirely on how the house rules work. Knowing how those rules work is the real key to winning.

It’s pretty simple: If the house has a hand total of 16 or lower, the dealer has to hit. Once that total is 17 or higher, the dealer has to stand. The only wrinkle here is when the house has a “soft 17,” which is an Ace and an 8. Most casinos require the dealer to hit on a soft 17 and then continue playing under the same “stand on 17 or higher” rule.

Whenever you’re playing blackjack, you operate under the assumption that the card you can’t see is probably a 10. It’s an odds thing. There are 52 cards in the deck, but when you factor in all the face cards a total of 16 cards have a value of 10. That’s versus four of each for every other card.

The only person you’re playing against in blackjack is the dealer.

Let’s think about this now in practical terms. Forget your hand for a second. If the dealer’s visible card is a 6, you proceed as if they have a 16 — which means when it’s their turn, they have to hit. If the visible card is a 7, they probably have 17 — an automatic stand.

Your decision to hit or stand is based on the same assumption. You can (and should) safely hit anytime your hand total, the sum of all cards, is 11 or lower. Once your hand total exceeds 11, it’s all about what the dealer has.

If you see the house has a 7, 8, 9, or 10 showing, you want to keep hitting until your hand total is at least one higher than the visible card plus 10. So if you see a 7, you assume it’s a 17 and keep hitting until you’re at 18 or higher (or go bust). But if you see, say, a 6 or a 5, you’re going to want to stand the second your hand total is higher than 11.

At that point, you’re betting that the dealer will bust. If the house has a 16 and has to hit, chances are they’re going to draw a 10. In the case of a 16 specifically, any card higher than a 5 (except Ace) is going to be a bust for the dealer. So if the dealer’s showing a 6, you want to stand even if you only have a 12.

There’s one special case that’s worth highlighting. If the house is showing a 2 or 3 and you have a 12, most pros will tell you to hit. Only a 10 (or 9, if you have 13) will bust you in that situation, and it’s also the one case where you hedge the odds a bit and say “OK, the dealer may not have a 10 hidden here.”

There are other advanced strategies, like doubling down or splitting your hand, but I’m not getting into all of that here. It’s good to understand those finer points of the rules if you want to get serious about blackjack gambling, but they’re irrelevant to this discussion. (Learn more here.)

The magic of progressive betting

Now we come to the heart of what makes blackjack an interesting table game: the gambling.

Red Dead Redemption 2‘s blackjack (and, really, every other video game version I’ve encountered) emphasizes “straight betting.” You put money down, you play the hand, you double what you bet if you win. When the next hand starts, you bet the same amount of money and keep on playing that way.

It’s a viable blackjack strategy in terms of the math and the way the odds work out. It’s also ridiculously boring and slow. Thankfully, it’s not the only option. Enter progressive betting.

With this approach, the amount you’re wagering in each hand is influenced by the amount you won or lost in the previous hand. There’s a multitude of ways to go about doing that, but I’ll share the strategy that has always worked for me. That doesn’t mean I’ve never lost; it’s just a reflection of how I’ve played the odds most successfully.

With progressive betting, the amount you wager is influenced by your win or loss in the previous hand.

Start with the table minimum bet. Let’s say it’s $5. You bet that. You win. Now you have $10, double your original bet. Let it ride. You win again, bringing your total on the table to $20. At this point, pull back $5 and bet $15. Whether you win or lose that next hand, taking your initial $5 back means you’ve already broken even and are gambling entirely with “won” money.

How you bet from that point on depends on how conservative or aggressive you are as a gambler. If I win that third hand, the $15 bet doubles to $30 and, personally, I take $10 back. So now I’ve got a $20 bet on the table — $5 more than the previous bet — and I’ve added $10 from my winnings to what I have banked.

The goal in blackjack, at least the way I play, is to stay afloat and keep betting conservatively until I go on what’s called a “run,” a consecutive series of winning hands. Once I get past that starting hump of two straight winning hands (i.e. once I’ve paid for my initial bet), I’m not risking anything in each successive hand.

In a more aggressive strategy, you might only take back $5 and bet $25 on the fourth hand. You’re growing your winnings more slowly by leaving more won money out on the table to be gambled. But, as your run continues, you’re also growing that pile much more quickly.

The particulars vary from strategy to strategy. My approach is definitely more conservative, aimed at keeping me in the game longer until I can hopefully go on a run. Like I said, there’s no surefire way to win. That’s just what works for me.

Where video games get it wrong

The problem in Red Dead and other games: When you win a hand, those winnings go right into your master cash supply. It emphasizes straight betting because there’s only one number to keep track of: The amount you bet on every hand. If you want to roll with progressive betting, you’ve got to manually set the next hand’s bet each time.

It’s an easy thing to keep track of early in a run, but it becomes increasingly complicated as your string of wins gets longer. There isn’t a thorough accounting on the screen of what you bet and what you won, so it all comes down to following the math in your head.

What’s frustrating is this is such a fixable problem! All video games I’ve encountered deal with blackjack in the same way: Win or lose, your bet resets to the minimum once a hand is over.

Instead, these games should be more reflective of how it would work in a casino. When you win on a $5 bet, the dealer puts another $5 into the space where your bet was placed. It’s then up to you to leave the money there or pull it back as you like.

That’s what video game blackjack ought to do. Leave my money on the table, let me decide how much to bet next based on how much I just won. It would make virtual blackjack a whole lot more interesting and in line with the way things tend to work in a real casino.

Is blackjack just a minor piece of Red Dead Redemption 2, something that no one has to engage with and a bunch of players probably won’t? Sure! But this has been bugging me, a gambler, for a long, long time. And if any game can fix this, it’s Red Dead.

Apple prompted many oohs and ahhs when it unveiled its electrocardiogram (ECG) feature for Apple Watch Series 4 in September. At the time, the impressive technical feat was bolstered by the FDA approval Apple had received for this new health feature.

But Apple fans outside of the U.S. may have to wait a bit longer for the ECG feature, which hasn’t rolled out yet. And when it does, 9to5Mac reports that availability will reportedly be limited to the U.S., based on code spotted in iOS.

SEE ALSO: Apple Watch Series 4 review: Sidekick no more

The limitation makes sense: an ECG is a medical feature, and therefore would need approval from any particular country’s health body. It appears this isn’t a case of “Ask for forgiveness, not permission.”

But 9to5Mac says the limitation is governed by software, not hardware. No matter where you are, the Apple Watch Series 4 will come with the sensors that enable the ECG. 

What’s more, if you’re outside of the U.S., there should theoretically be an easy way to get access to the ECG. All you have to do is go to your Apple Watch’s Settings and change your region to the U.S.A. However, that will also probably mess with the date, time, and weather alerts as well. But if you’re abroad with your new Watch and just need a quick heart reading, you may be able to deliver your own, uh, bypass.

Of course, none of this is to say how accurate or effective the ECG feature is. We’ll only be able to gauge that when it’s available, and so far Apple hasn’t given a date.