12 Photos From The Past That Are Incredibly Unsettling

Postmortem portraits, ghost photographs, and images of disfigured soldiers are just a few examples of photography from the past that might seem unsettling to modern viewers. The grainy and black-and-white aesthetic combined with the open acknowledgment of death and fascination with the supernatural world has produced many photos that now give off an eerie and disturbing feel. 

For those who find this intriguing, we have a whole list of pictures from the past that are truly unsettling. Collected by the Old School Creepy subreddit, these images invite you to embark on a darker journey through history.

While you're scrolling through, don't forget to check out a conversation with moderators of this subreddit, nicknamed Seryan_Klythe and TheOddityCollector, who kindly agreed to chat with us more about old and unsettling photos.

12 PHOTOS

#1 Behind The Scenes Of The Shining (1980)

#2 To Appear Headless While Taking A Photo, Known As "Horsemaning", Was A Popular Way To Pose In The 1920's

#3 Apache Ghost Dance Ceremony, Taken By Edward Curtis Circa 1906

The Old School Creepy subreddit has been around since 2014, which means that it has invited people to share disturbing vintage pictures for more than a decade now! In this time, it managed to gather a community of 81K members—all fans of the creepy and spooky.

Pictolic was lucky enough to get in touch with its moderators, who kindly agreed to tell us more about it.

"The subreddit was created for people who enjoy the eerie feeling of old photos. Unlike modern horror, old pictures can be creepy in a more subtle way—through strange expressions, outdated fashion, or imperfections in the photo itself," told us moderator TheOddityCollector.

#4 Behind The Scenes Of Max Reinhardt's 1935 Adaptation Of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

#5 My Mother In Law And Her Twin Sometime In The 60’s

#6 Stills From The Very Druggish Children’s Show “H.r. Puffnstuff” From 1969

Its other moderator, nicknamed Seryan_Klythe, said that what fascinates them about disturbing vintage images the most is the fact that they were taken in the time of pre-technological standards and bare-bones inventions. "The world was different and saw things differently too. The fascination is part of understanding what was creepy to someone then was simplistic and played more with their blunt fascination to take things at face value or without the use of high-sophistication gimmickry."

#7 Glazed Earthenware Rookwood Vase Featuring An Image Of A Skeleton, American, 1891

#8 Martin Laurello, The Only Man Who Could Rotate His Head A Full 180 Degrees, 1930s

#9 A Boy On Krampus Shoulders During A Parade, Mitterndorf, Austria, 6th Of Dec 1949

Indeed, when people were taking postmortem photos with their loved ones, they weren't thinking that they were doing something morbid—they were just trying to capture a simple photo they could remember them by in the future.

When postmortem photography was popular, deaths were a frequent occurrence, which meant that many people, especially children, didn't have a photo taken of them while they were alive. So their relatives would usually take one after their passing.

#10 The Cabaret Of Hell , Paris, 1920s

#11 Actor Reggie Nadler Who Played The Vampire Kurt Barlow In Salem’s Lot, With Effects Mask From The Movie

#12 A Boy Named Rich Bundy In A Family Photo With His Brother, Ted, Before That Infamous Older Brother Was Caught

Having a trinket of a deceased loved one definitely wasn't a new thing by then. People would cut locks of hair from the dead and put them into lockets and rings or create death masks from wax. However, attitudes towards them and post-mortem photography have changed as our view of death has evolved.

Our comfort with corpses decreased as the funeral industry appeared, the government removed post-mortem care from family members, and hygiene and modern medicine helped people live longer.