Appreciating Creepy Cemeteries: What Makes Cemeteries Creepy?

Creepy cemeteries - they are the thing that dreams are made of.  This past summer, Julie and I went to the cemetery used for the filming of "Night of the Living Dead" and it lived up to our expectations. It was isolated, no visitors, felt like the end of the world, surrounded by woods, rustic, and an intense feeling of being watched.

What makes a cemetery creepy? 

Tragic history
Infamous occupants
Isolated location
Aged and weather beaten
Upright headstones and statues in various states of disarray 
Admittedly, autumn and winter make any cemetery bleak
Wrought iron, statues, tall headstones, lots of trees

How do you find the creepy ones? 

Well, New England is going to have some of the oldest ones, but don't let that sway you. Anywhere in the US where the cemetery has burials in the 1800s and before, is likely to still have headstones (instead of those godawful flat things they can mow over). Weather is critical too. Moss and lichens take over in wet locations. Some of the creepiest cemeteries I've seen were in the Portland, Oregon area.  You can also look up cemetery photos online by "creepy cemetery" image search and such. Try doing some google image searches for "abandoned cemetery," "creepy cemetery," "scary cemetery," and the like.  Look for ghost towns, defunct mining towns, and towns that are nearly vacated due to economy.  Very rural towns in the mountains like Appalachia have tons and tons of family plots everywhere. 

And, then there's the Arizona desert -

Where's the haunted cemeteries?

Resurrection Cemetery 


Wolfinger Cemetery 


Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery 


Greenwood Cemetery

Greenwood Cemetery in Decatur Illinois is where a limping boy in large overalls is seen among the headstones. Spectral lights are also seen.

St. Louis Cemetery 


Lake View Cemetery 


Stull Cemetery 


Tips for going to cemeteries







Photographing Cemeteries

Do not just stand there at viewing height and snap pictures.  Be ready to find shady areas, go at sunset, go in fall and winter when it's bleak, barren, colorful or snowy and overcast. When you find a headstone you like, walk around it, crouch down, look at every possibly perspective. Be ready to get on your belly for a creepy perspective or even lie down atop of the grave as if you're buried there and take a shot looking up showing headstone upside down to show the view of the occupant. Use dead trees, left behind items that are poignant and close-ups of broken statues to give atmosphere.

Here's 25 scariest cemeteries

Horror movies with cemeteries

Cemetery Man
Pet Semetery
Night of the Living Dead
House By the Cemetery
Cemetery Gates
Army of Darkness


  1. Once a year I visit four cemeteries: two, where my beloved ones are burried, other two where the graves of two spiritual figures (rabbies)are. These cemeteries are located in towns or on the edge of the town. I have relatives burried in far cemeteries that are not very accessible to me.

    Anyway, a visit to a cemetery is a heavy physical and spiritual journey. Sometimes unpleasant things happen. Once I tried to take a short way through the graves, my skirt touched a potted plant which opened, and a lot of needles landed on my skirt and entered the flesh of the leg and the bottom . It was hell. I don't know the name of the plant.It was an attack, and it caused me trauma and pain.


Post a Comment