The Creepy in the Window

I love Reddit; someone posted my article about the Mountain Octopus on there and it brought in a HUGE amount of traffic to my blog!  But, there's a dark side to everything...and sometimes people use this awesome social networking site for ::gasp:: EVIL!  Hehe, well, maybe not evil, but a lot of misinformation comes out of there, either intentionally or unintentionally.

One such example is the rather creepy photo above.

Aaaugh!  I don't know what's creepier...the childlike doll, or the doll-like child?  What about the slightly off-kilter perspective?  And then, once you're adequately creeped out by all those elements, you notice the face in the window, which is eerily reflected in the mirror. Is it an alien?  Is it a serial killer wearing a mask?  Is it a ghost?  WTF is it!?

 Like many similar photographs, this one is being passed around in paranormal-themed Facebook groups.  And, in nearly all of them, this is being represented as a REAL photograph, with plenty of commentators eager to support that claim without anything to back up those opinions.  There were a few dissenters, but their opinions were largely ignored or dismissed and without any type of documentation to back up THEIR opinion, it was one camp's word against the other.

Lucky for us, someone finally DID take the time to track down the origins of this photo and not surprisingly, was able to prove that it is NOT paranormal.

The author of the wonderful blog, Skeptic's Boot, who also runs the Facebook page, The Rational Paranormal, recently posted his findings after conducting a simple Google Images search for the photograph in question. What that search led to was a thread listed under Reddit's "Creepy" subreddit.  Reddit user "tiffyyffit" submitted a photograph with a request for other users to help her "make a creepy in the window."

Several members met the challenge, but it was the image created by "phubans" that essentially "won," meaning, that's the image that was hoarked and passed around the web.  The Skeptic's Boot has provided a screenshot and a link to the original thread, where it clearly shows "tiffyyffit" posting the original photo (sans creepy faces), asking for help, and other members submitting their creations.  Personally, I prefer the subtlety of "MikeyBakes" creation much better, but that's just me!  Check out the link below to check them all out and see a photograph of the original, unaltered image.  And a huge thank you and shout out to the Skeptic's Boot for his work in making the paranormal field a little more intelligent!  Go check out the blog and give his Facebook page a LIKE!

Reddit's Creepy Subreddit Thread