Top 10 SCARIEST Documentaries Ever Made

Well, the title is certainly accurate. “The Nightmare” explores the phenomenon of sleep paralysis, a condition where people wake up but are unable to move and often experience terrifying hallucinations. Rather than taking a purely scientific approach, the film focuses on personal accounts and recreates their terrifying experiences through dramatized sequences. The film is adept at recreating the horrible visions reported by sufferers, including shadow figures and red-eyed demons, and it plays on the psychological terror associated with sleep paralysis, blurring the line between dream and reality and offering no clear cut answers. “The Nightmare” offers a glimpse into a frightening situation that many find themselves facing every single night.

New York City is often depicted quite positively, a bustling metropolis containing an electric energy, beautiful sights, and iconic landmarks. But just underneath the surface, literally, lies a rather disturbing reality. In “Dark Days,” Marc Singer explores the lives of an unhoused community living in the abandoned Freedom Tunnel under the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The setting - a hidden, dystopian world beneath one of the busiest cities on Earth - is unbelievably eerie, and the choice to shoot in black and white only enhances the bleak and ghostly atmosphere. The film is also rife with psychological horror, as the tunnel’s inhabitants battle the pitch black, intense isolation, and disease-carrying rodents. “Dark Days” depicts a dark reality that some are tragically forced to contend with.

Meat consumption - especially inhumane farming practices - has been a touchy subject for decades. “Dominion” explores that subject in a brutal and unflinching light. The documentary exposes the hidden realities of animal agriculture using the likes of drones, hidden cameras, and undercover footage. It reveals how farming industries deliberately keep consumers in the dark about the suffering behind their food production, and it does so with some extremely graphic footage. “Dominion” wants you to see how these animals are treated, and unfortunately, that means showing you how they are caged and, ultimately, killed. Furthermore, the drone footage combines with a haunting soundtrack to give the film a bleak, almost dystopian atmosphere. Yeah, this isn’t one to watch right after having dinner.

Even the title of this one is scary. On July 26, 2009, 36-year-old Diane Schuler drove almost two miles in the wrong direction down New York’s Taconic State Parkway before colliding with an SUV. Eight people were killed in the collision - three in the SUV, Schuler, her daughter, and Schuler’s three nieces. “There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane” explores this case, using interviews with Diane’s husband and sister-in-law, both of whom contest the official narrative that Diane was both stoned and drunk. Not only is the story itself quite scary and unsettling, but the film also boils with a psychological mystery and references distressing phone calls from Diane’s young nieces, who sensed that something had gone terribly wrong with their aunt.

This movie is certainly not for the faint of heart, containing many real on-screen deaths. The titular “bridge” is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and in the documentary, filmmaker Eric Steel explores why people jump off of it. The doc is particularly controversial because the filmmakers secretly recorded real jumps over the course of a year, and the movie shows them in a raw and unflinching manner. It’s extremely disturbing, and the footage is often followed or accompanied by interviews with family members, friends, and witnesses. The bridge, often depicted as an iconic and scenic landmark, becomes an eerie backdrop for tragedy and a grim exploration into the human psyche.

The “Dave” in question is Dave Shaw, a professional diver who tragically died in January 2005. Just a few months earlier, Dave found the body of Deon Dreyer, a recreational scuba diver who died in a cave known as Bushman’s Hole. Dave and his friend Don Shirley then decided to recover Dreyer’s body, and Dave died in the process. This documentary chronicles the unfortunate incident, complete with on-location shooting that provides a terrifying glimpse of the pitch-black abyss. The visuals instantly put the viewer in panic mode, creating a palpable sense of claustrophobia and psychological tension. The story also unfolds with a creeping sense of inevitable doom and often uses camcorder footage from the real expedition, providing a further dimension of dread.

Anything involving urban legends is sure to chill the blood. “Cropsey” does just that, the titular character being a local boogeyman and supposed abductor from Staten Island. However, the documentary expertly blurs the line between myth and reality. It begins in the realm of childhood folklore before segueing into the story of Andre Rand, a real criminal from the area who may have inspired the legend of Cropsey. The surreal blending of fact and fiction makes for an uncomfortable viewing experience, as does the subject matter itself. Rand himself also has an unbelievably eerie presence, and the footage of the crumbling Willowbrook State School makes for a horrific backdrop. “Cropsey” is basically a real-life “Blair Witch Project,” and is every bit as terrifying.

More of a docudrama than a full documentary, “Wisconsin Death Trip” is certainly a trip. It’s based on a book from 1973 written by Michael Lesy and recounts a series of creepy events that befell Jackson County, Wisconsin in the late 1800s. These stories are often grim and bizarre, including the likes of murders, arson, and mental breakdowns, all of which contribute to an almost supernatural atmosphere that makes the town seem cursed. Adding to that atmosphere is the movie’s weird, ghostly aesthetic, featuring detached narration from Ian Holm, creepy period photographs, and silent black and white reenactments of the horrible events. It’s like watching a nightmare in the style of an old horror movie.

We’re going back to the ‘60s for “Titicut Follies,” which could be the most notorious documentary in American history. Filmed by John Marshall, the movie explores the depraved conditions inside the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. This is an incredibly raw portrayal of human suffering and institutional cruelty, featuring patients with mental health issues being mistreated, taunted, and neglected. The documentary’s cinéma vérité style - completely without narration, interviews, or music - makes the film even more unsettling, as we are forced to witness the horror without emotional guidance. Finally, the visuals are extremely creepy, with stark black and white photography and scenes of emaciated men, blank stares, and cruel force-feeding. Walking through this hospital with Marshall is a supremely uncomfortable experience.

An extremely controversial film that wasn’t even seen in its titular country for decades, “The Killing of America” chronicles the wave of violence that plagued the U.S. in the 60s and 70s. This thing covers everything, including serial killers, political assassinations, school shootings, and public rampages. And yes, we see these acts of violence played out, with genuine footage of murders and dead bodies. It also takes the time to interview the people who perpetrated these crimes, with talking heads like Sirhan Sirhan and Edmund Kemper. All the while, the film presents an unrelentingly grim and hopeless tone, with cold narration and a chilling thesis that violence is inevitable - and only getting worse. There’s nothing scarier than reality.

Have you managed to stomach any of these documentaries? Let us know in the comments below!