20 Documentaries That Scared the Hell Out of People
![20 Documentaries That Scared the Hell Out of People](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/5/3/5/969535_320x180.jpg)
Documentaries have long held a reputation for being boring, typically conjuring the sights and sounds of some old British guy droning on about the majesty of the dung beetle that’s mostly suited for lulling you to sleep after a long night of watching actually exciting content. But those are your grandma’s documentaries. These days, with the true-crime boom and a new wave of investigative journalism, you can delve into an exposé of modern society’s seedy, slightly sticky underbelly or a 20-part series examining every facet of a serial killer’s mind.
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That’s the sort of thing Redditor DirectionBasic3386 was looking for when they asked r/Movies, “What is the scariest documentary you’ve ever seen?” “I am a big horror genre fan,” they explained, “but truth is scarier than fiction, so I also really love documentaries,” noting that “a couple of the scariest documentaries I’ve seen are Jesus Camp and The Imposter.”
Reddit agreed and also supplied serial killers, prison riots, all kinds of abuse, and… tickling? Seriously, hear them out.
The Act of Killing
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/8/968768.jpg)
Into the Deep: The Submarine Murder Case
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/7/968767.jpg)
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/6/968766.jpg)
Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/5/968765.jpg)
New Mexico Penitentiary
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/4/968764.jpg)
Gladiator Days: Anatomy of a Prison Murder
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/3/968763.jpg)
The Dust Bowl
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/2/968762.jpg)
Man in Hole
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/1/968761.jpg)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/6/0/968760.jpg)
The Bridge
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/9/968759.jpg)
Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/8/968758.jpg)
The Sinking of the Concordia: Caught on Camera
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/7/968757.jpg)
Jared From Subway: Catching a Monster
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/6/968756.jpg)
Child of Rage: A Story of Abuse
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/4/968754.jpg)
Inside North Korea
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/5/968755.jpg)
The Nightmare
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/3/968753.jpg)
The Cove
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/0/968750.jpg)
Dominion
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/1/968751.jpg)
Dark Days
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/5/2/968752.jpg)
Tickled
![](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/7/4/9/968749.jpg)