I think it was a depiction of dementia. The old lady, having forgotten her neighbors was afraid, they were her interpretations of them, invaders, maybe friendly neighbors looking to check up on her, until she died peacefully having remembered her son, that memory allowing her to feel safe. She conjured him by looking at the photo. He would look massive to her, all grown up.
The hat man is actually a really common hallucination, he appears in dreams and sleep paralysis. I had a dream with him last night. He's just a guy, yknow. Doing his thing. We're chill.
My sister used to have hallucinations when she was little, would tell everyone she saw a ghost wearing a hat. She's 37 now, but still gets creeped out by the thought of the first time she ever saw him.
Every night when I was a kid I would have a nightmare of a man in a top hat in all black that would come and kidnap me and stuff me in a bag full of toys.
whoa. what IF marie was a dog. My theory was that hat man was her dead son who came to pick her up since she was dying. and some ppl says (at least here in my country) that dogs can see the dead or the paranormal. and IF marie was a dog, it makes sense that she could see the hat man. just playing around with the ending xD
@@bogwife7942 i agree! which is weird because this author has written other stories for are you scared which are actually pretty well written, both in terms of plot and style.
Seems like a metaphor for dementia. The hostile neighbors are the way someone who suffers from it would view the people around them who they perceive to be threatening and scary. Then a warped memory of her son, being confusing but ultimately not threatening, maybe even a comfort at the end. Also a big clue is everything happening around sundown and lasting until dawn. People who suffer with dementia often have worse episodes and symptoms at night. Though it being from the caretakers perspective is confusing, it's fiction so who cares. That's my take and makes the most sense to me but I guess it's really up to you what you take from the story and how you interpret it.
I think this is a pretty cool way of looking at it actually. Maybe having the caretaker as the protagonist was to make it more real and vivid and a new perspective for sufferers of dementia - like, a way of saying “you’re not alone”
@@samryder8496 Maybe it's both dementia and magic--the old lady is projecting her inner reality onto the physical space around her and the protagonist gets caught up in it. The neighborhood appears empty because no one wants to be within a thirty foot radius of that house.
I read this comment before getting more than a minute into the vid. Going in with the dementia parallel in mind, i think you might’ve found the authors inspiration. Solid connection
I'm certain it's happened a fair few times to real people, often time when it comes to the elderly a forced caretaker on someone unwilling only really comes when you know you can't do much for them and they can't do much for themselves. I'm almost certain the niece would be somewhat relieved because for all intents and purposes, all she will ever know is that her aunt died in her sleep without having to leave the house that she loved so much.
i def agree with the comments saying the story was missing some cohesion, and just wanted to add something that hasn't been talked about -- the perspective character's complete lack of worry or empathy for sarah is jarring, and takes away some of the tension/horror. no matter how crotchety an old lady is, if i was taking care of her and the whole town attacked her house, I wouldn't be thinking just for my own safety, I would be worried for sarah too. the POV character doesn't think for one second about sarah's safety, or yell for sarah when she's running through the house as the windows are shattering, or urge sarah to get out of bed so they can escape -- nothing. During the attack on the house, POV character only fears for herself, and mentions sarah just as a detail in the setting of the house (the 'she was lying in bed, watching static' line). it makes it hard to have any resonance at the end, and if this is a metaphor for dementia, the POV character ruins that because there is no connection or empathy between her and sarah. all this being said, I loved ryan and shane's comments lol and also i think there were some great descriptions of the mailbox lady becoming scary and running after POV character, so there is horror potential in there. but horror needs empathy to hit
Bwahahahahaha. Funny Lol 😂 but honestly what truly scares me is that porn star mustache Shane sports around in public like it ain’t no big and worrisome deal. Yes I’d definitely purposely walk me and my daughters across the road away from that porn star stash. 😦
is no one going to talk about ryan’s sponsorship segment or like. “my browsing history is something i *definitely* need to keep private” “i don’t need anymore spooky ads on my socials” king this is more terrifying than the story
for me. yes and no. i wish they didnt say theyd have to guess if it was real or not everytime considering you can tell if something is fake 99.9% of the time. i loved having the real stories and every episode id think "ooh i wonder if this will be real or not." we havent had a "real" one since the lady in white and its an alleged story💀💀 if they simply just said "hey we're gonna read scary stories" and reveal some are real, then i wouldnt be upset that it changed and that the guessing game is futile now. like, im pretty sure 2/39 stories are real if my memory is correct, its just really upsetting :/
Isn’t the hat man supposed to be a shared sleep paralysis thing? Like a lot of people wake up and see the hat man during sleep paralysis. I’ve never heard of this version of the hat man
Hat man is also commonly seen by people who experienced child a*use for whatever reason. I have a friend who started experiencing visual hallucinations and he was one of the first they saw, but they had never heard of him before, i only found out about him because of the experience
Yeah I found it kinda lacking. It seemed like a small chapter of a bigger story and the twist did not have a good impact at all. This is definitely one of those stories that one has to really conjure interpretations for it to make sense, but for a short horror story hot damn it blows.
I'm gonna guess this is all just a metaphor for dementia , the scary monster neighbors are just her regular neighbors she no longer recognizes who she believes are trying to break into her house when they're actually just trying to see how she's doing, maybe Marie is a manifestation of her desire to have the ability to take care of herself again or something, and the hat man is her son who she hasn't seen in a long time , dressed similarly to how he did when he was a child in hopes it would help her remember him or something like that. Then ofc all the bad "evil neighbors" would disappear when he came because they knew there was someone checking up on her etc. And finally at the end she dies scared and confused (basically feeling all the things Marie is feeling) never having recognized her son (seeing as how the Hat Man's face was never visible etc) and ultimately dieing "alone." Never having realized what was truly going on around her.
I would be scared too considering I know an old lady with dimentia/Alzheimer's(not sure) who's own daughter yells at her 24/7 and even gives death threats to her... Poor lady can't even get off her seat without getting yelled at
I don't think the story is bad, but it's hard for me to be scared when I'm mostly just confused. Though, I prefer when things are more grounded in reality, since I can convince myself that could actually happen to me, rather than laughing at the silly Hat Man.
I thought it would be far more scary if it was... less real? I don't know, somehow I understood too much of what's going on. These people are trying to kill me, this man controls them, I need to hide from them. Very simple in the character's shoes even if the context is more absurd and ridiculous. It would've been actually scary if the protagonist entered the house and suddenly there were no more noises from outside and everyone was gone, I think, and the story progressed with her not knowing what to do
It was viscerally terrifying, having Ryan say "my browser history is definitely something that should stay private" like that to me took ten years off my life.
Cool story, but I'm definitely left more confused than scared. There's lots of unresolved stuff that won't ever get answered. I'm guessing this story exists to fish for interpretations given the ambiguity of the ending, but in return it lacks that oomph that the best episodes had which really made them scary.
Judging from the ending, i personally believe that the hat man was just her son, who’d continued using magic from his childhood, coming to both say goodbye to his mother and grieve her death, and she looked scared because she either couldn’t recognize her son or that she recognized her son but was horrified at what he’d become That’s what i though while watching at least I don’t think he’s the boogeyman or babadook or something, just a person changed to the extreme through magic Overall, ok episode, but i like previous ones more
Also, there’ always the idea that this was all dementia, a thing produced by the old woman’s mind And the hat man’s lanky appearance was just her imagining what her son would be/was like all grown up
@@Parasolhyena they describe it as scared or something, but the narrator could just be misinterpreting what’s really happening Instead of crying in fear, as you said, she may be crying in joy to see her son again in her final moments
I'd say that Ryan claiming a person in a doorway is scary might be related to feeling entrapped. Also, the way the door helps form a silhouette, and frames it, may make someone seem more physically imposing while potentially obscuring their other features (only in an exterior door under intense daylight or at night backlit.)
In My Chemical Romance's famous song; Welcome to the Black Parade, Gerard Way said it was based off the concept that when you die, death comes to you in the vision of your favourite memory. For Sarah, her favourite memory may have been the one with her grandson that is seen in the picture, and thus, that is how death came for her.
That was actually a really good take! It makes the story a little more enjoyable too, rather then the complete disappointment it felt like after hearing it originally
Maybe during the hours that the hat man sat there, Sarah was seeing old memories and reliving moments from her life, that's why she was crying. Maybe only she could hear him speak
Pausing this to attend therapy real quick feels like such an odd “reward” but here we are. I love y’all and how you mix comedy with horror so seamlessly, it makes for a great watching experience every time
The hat man was her son. He had come back to take her to the afterlife. Ringing of a bell anounces that someone's time has come. The "people" who attacked the house were spirits trapped in limbo and the fact that a person could see them was a no no hence them chasing her and going after her. I think the reason they left when he came was because he had claim to her soul and he was going there to take her.
Having just lost my grandmother to dementia my first impression was that it was a metaphor for alzheimers. Everything getting crazy around twilight sounds like "sundowning". I think this one is only scary if you have watched someone going through it.
I really miss the stories that were experienced or at least more grounded in reality. If the first few paragraphs sound like they're written by an English major, I know it's gonna be another fairy tale
i agree, i’m not a big fan of these unrealistic ones. for example, i really enjoyed the one with the decapitated heads and the twist at the end. it was neat
i know they said somewhere that they stopped doing the realistic stories and the whole "is it real or fake" stuff bc they said they struggled to read a story and not feel great concern for the author and such, and thats when it switched to the more outlandish ones. i agree with you though
This story was nice and creepy, but I miss the really terrifying ones like the one about the face in the window or the thing in the woods. Those kept me up at night, scared me half to death.
Weird pacing and structuring in this story. It goes from 0 to 11 with absolutely no buildup and then drops the reader almost as soon as the big scares are over with precious few insights to chew on. I don't know if there was meant to be more there that got cut for length or if this was a case of having an idea for something that would be really scary and not knowing so much how to couch it in a story. There's good meat here but it needs more bones (unlike sardines).
shane going directly from a tiny creepy tangent about sardine bones being pleasant to chew into a loud "HEY WHERE'S A FACKING A HATMAN" as a distraction was really good
This story really reminds me of Little Nightmares 2. Like, a LOT. The TV static, the people looking up at the sky that turn into aggressive zombies, and the hat man who used to be a child are all quite similar. Is the hat man an established mythical creature? Very cool if so.
shout out to the artist for all these by the way, excellent job as always giving visuals to the story! the credits say her name is mollie ong, so hey, hell of a job as always mollie :]
I think the author chose to be a little too mysterious about it for the writing style to work. All stories and styles are different and sometimes explaining things is good. There could have been more explanation here. It would be easier to say whether or not the story was well-written if it felt finished, but it's hard to judge if something was done well if you aren't even sure what it was doing.
I like these videos a lot. I’ve been too depressed to eat or sleep much, and these really help while I’m working or trying to sleep. Being momentarily spooked by a silly story told by some genuinely funny, nice people is a lot better than crying. It reminds me that there are things in life outside of my currently very ugly mind.
I went through the same thing in 2020. Came out of it. Trust me just give it some time. Try to keep everything lighthearted, laugh at most things, keep busy. Time will pass and things will change. You'll stop believing the nasty things your mind makes you believe. Bad times never last.
Old rule in storytelling, if a detail is specifically mentioned that seems like it's irrelevant to the story, it's going to come back in some way. As soon as they mentioned the lady's son and husband being dead, I knew the hat man would have to be one of them and more likely the son since it's more unusual for a child to die before the parent. And the fact that the lady was crying as he stood there convinced me even more that she was crying because this was her dead son.
Am I the only one who absolutely loves the illustrator for these stories? They do such a great job with depicting what the story teller is trying to portray and can draw some true immense expressions. I love it so much! Really pulls me deeper into the story
This is EXACTLY what I was going to comment. The TV really tipped me off and then when they said he was really tall and thin, I was sure. Still a great effort on the story though
Duuuuuude I just wanted to say I still get the chills late at night because of the face of that red decepated man on the girl's window tale that y'all once told us about, like, fucking horrifying still, everytime I look at my window late at night I got to double check, loved it.
@@beckettmaffei im saying ive read better prose in half rate nosleep creepypastas, this is honestly one of the worst theyve read in terms of content AND prose
To answer Shane’s question, there are many stories of that hat man, and they are… like.. oh my god.. you just have to check them out for yourself to truly understand but this is a different version to what I have normally heard.
Author must not have known the hatman has been an already established entity or was trying to fish some popularity from it, either way I came with really high expectations and left pretty dissapointed, would've loved to see a well-written story about it
when i was younger i had an imaginary friend called 'the man in the hat'. he stood in the corner of my room where all the shadows collect. he's always been friendly. i still imagine him there from time to time. i can confirm that hat man is chill.
SHOUT OUT TO THE ILLUSTRATOR MOLLIE! Insanely good art as usual, we love to see it! These episodes wouldn't be the same without your amazing visuals.. so thank you so much!
Shane: “if everybody’s doing it I’m gonna do it too” Ryan: “yeah…” sounded like the most disappointed yet accepting ‘yeah’ I’ve ever heard, he was just like yup I guess that’s Shane hahaha 10:23
i watched this for the first time while extremely high and it was a WILD experience. this story goes from grounded in reality to fucking insane so fast I couldn't tell if I was enjoying it or not lmao
Could you occasionally throw in a couple true stories once-in-a-while? It was a cool twist last season when you announced a story was actually true at the end a couple times.
I agree! They ask for stories to be around 2500 words, so it's probably hard to take a true story and stretch it that long unless you're a talented writer
They stopped doing true stories because it's hard/icky to banter and joke about people's real life traumas. They're not gonna do any more true stories.
@@charminsi can at least hope for stories that sound like they could be real :/ the last couple episodes i'm more confused than scared because the stories are just over the top, old school creepypasta type stuff
When the story mentions everyone staring up at the sky, almost in anticipation of rain, all I could picture was "The Faculty" with their tendril-like things reaching for the rain... *shiver*
This is like Picnic at Hanging Rock level, Bikram! It’s always scarier when a story isn’t tied up in a nice little bow at the end, and instead leaves literally everything to the imagination. My favorite one so far!
what if this story is just about the caretaker trying to set up grandma with the hat man and it's very romantic and sweet edit: nevermind💀 edit edit: NEVERMIND NEVERMIND NEVERMIND
When Ryan said the sentence where it described Sarah crying while the hat man was in the room, I immediately knew it was either her deceased son or husband
Check out Birkman's book for more spooky stories! www.amazon.com/dp/B0965RFF17/?tag=veloxwebsite-20
whoops, Bikram
Mmmm no. This sorry sucked, Bikerack.
Petition to let Shane write alternate endings to each story, or whatever the hell he wants, and then have him read them to us hot daga style
Where do I sign?
+1 Signature
YES!!!!!
💯💯💯
YES PLEASE
I think it was a depiction of dementia. The old lady, having forgotten her neighbors was afraid, they were her interpretations of them, invaders, maybe friendly neighbors looking to check up on her, until she died peacefully having remembered her son, that memory allowing her to feel safe. She conjured him by looking at the photo. He would look massive to her, all grown up.
It also matches up with her quiet but hostile demeanor which isn't uncommon with dementia
IM DRUNK AND I CAN SPELL DEMENTIA. MAN. COME ON.
@@kyloforshaw8400 good for you
@@kyloforshaw8400 That's sick.
you edited yr disgracefully spelled dementia. man. sneaky sneaky. dimensia was how u spelt it. dont lieeeeeeee lmao.
Honestly, Shane talking about eating the sardines was quite scary.
sardines are bussin what u chattin bout
sardines are so good tho with rice mmmm
Sardines are great! Get you some jasmine rice, put the sardines on top, have some kimchi on the side, you got yourself a nice meal!
Certainly a lot scarier then the story they read.
Probably the scariest part of this video
The hat man is actually a really common hallucination, he appears in dreams and sleep paralysis. I had a dream with him last night. He's just a guy, yknow. Doing his thing. We're chill.
Yes, thank you. I was wondering why no one mentioned him! When Shane said maybe he’s friend not foe I was like yeah he’s cool, he’s cool
My sister used to have hallucinations when she was little, would tell everyone she saw a ghost wearing a hat. She's 37 now, but still gets creeped out by the thought of the first time she ever saw him.
It's my theory that he's Baron Samedi.
Every night when I was a kid I would have a nightmare of a man in a top hat in all black that would come and kidnap me and stuff me in a bag full of toys.
@@teamexplorers2.0 well at least the bag was full of toys and not... cobras
"Marie, come." And "I trotted back towards the house." makes Marie sound like she's a dog responding to an owner. What weird phrasing.
Maybe she IS a dog?? Think about it!
Im surprised neither of them brought it up
whoa. what IF marie was a dog. My theory was that hat man was her dead son who came to pick her up since she was dying. and some ppl says (at least here in my country) that dogs can see the dead or the paranormal. and IF marie was a dog, it makes sense that she could see the hat man. just playing around with the ending xD
the whole story is phrased weird. its like the writer was trying really hard to sound like a Real Author, but wasnt really experienced to pull it off
@@bogwife7942 i agree! which is weird because this author has written other stories for are you scared which are actually pretty well written, both in terms of plot and style.
Seems like a metaphor for dementia. The hostile neighbors are the way someone who suffers from it would view the people around them who they perceive to be threatening and scary. Then a warped memory of her son, being confusing but ultimately not threatening, maybe even a comfort at the end. Also a big clue is everything happening around sundown and lasting until dawn. People who suffer with dementia often have worse episodes and symptoms at night. Though it being from the caretakers perspective is confusing, it's fiction so who cares. That's my take and makes the most sense to me but I guess it's really up to you what you take from the story and how you interpret it.
I think this is a pretty cool way of looking at it actually. Maybe having the caretaker as the protagonist was to make it more real and vivid and a new perspective for sufferers of dementia - like, a way of saying “you’re not alone”
@@samryder8496 Maybe it's both dementia and magic--the old lady is projecting her inner reality onto the physical space around her and the protagonist gets caught up in it. The neighborhood appears empty because no one wants to be within a thirty foot radius of that house.
To me, seems like a reference or intertextuality to Little Nightmare 2. The giant thin hat man. The TV statics. People going insane for human flesh.
I read this comment before getting more than a minute into the vid. Going in with the dementia parallel in mind, i think you might’ve found the authors inspiration. Solid connection
@@isabella16939 I was also thinking of hat man, such a spooky guy
Ryan: it's about the hat man, it's not about you
Shane: *every shade(shane) of disappointment*
Lol
Shane of disappointment*
50 shades of disappointment
@@SatansRatPrincess 50 shanes of disappointment*
@@cherryflyer1930 thank you for correcting me :)
You're left as a caretaker for this lady for one day and she croaks... that's gonna be an awkward conversation with the niece.
Caretaker-"was your relative dead when I arrived?"
Niece-"No!"
Caretaker - "okay so it happened on my watch" (awkward chuckle)
I'm certain it's happened a fair few times to real people, often time when it comes to the elderly a forced caretaker on someone unwilling only really comes when you know you can't do much for them and they can't do much for themselves. I'm almost certain the niece would be somewhat relieved because for all intents and purposes, all she will ever know is that her aunt died in her sleep without having to leave the house that she loved so much.
Hearing this story is like watching the last half hour of a movie with absolutely no context.
i def agree with the comments saying the story was missing some cohesion, and just wanted to add something that hasn't been talked about -- the perspective character's complete lack of worry or empathy for sarah is jarring, and takes away some of the tension/horror. no matter how crotchety an old lady is, if i was taking care of her and the whole town attacked her house, I wouldn't be thinking just for my own safety, I would be worried for sarah too. the POV character doesn't think for one second about sarah's safety, or yell for sarah when she's running through the house as the windows are shattering, or urge sarah to get out of bed so they can escape -- nothing. During the attack on the house, POV character only fears for herself, and mentions sarah just as a detail in the setting of the house (the 'she was lying in bed, watching static' line). it makes it hard to have any resonance at the end, and if this is a metaphor for dementia, the POV character ruins that because there is no connection or empathy between her and sarah.
all this being said, I loved ryan and shane's comments lol and also i think there were some great descriptions of the mailbox lady becoming scary and running after POV character, so there is horror potential in there. but horror needs empathy to hit
good comment man
I think she was too shocked and terrified to think clearly.
when they ran in, sarah was staring dead eyed at static, so i would be afraid that shes turned into one of the ghouls
@@W81HotPotLickin2nd thought the same
@@W81HotPotLickin2nd agreed, the writer could've easily taken it in that direction by adding just a few sentences, missed opportunity there
if the hat man is shane in his cowboy hat, then yes.
all he needs is cowboy boots to match!!!
Cowboys outfits too.
Horrifying.
Bwahahahahaha. Funny Lol 😂 but honestly what truly scares me is that porn star mustache Shane sports around in public like it ain’t no big and worrisome deal. Yes I’d definitely purposely walk me and my daughters across the road away from that porn star stash. 😦
it is.
“are you scared of the hat man” i mean ig it depends on what kinda hat he’s wearing, like a fedora is scarier than a beanie
wdym, a beanie is terrifying given the right context :)
@@sugarieee true
@@sugarieee and a fedora, in the right context, can be just as scary
Depending on how much reddit karma the wearer has
What about a beret
a sombrero perhaps?
Honestly this entire time I was just picturing the man with the yellow hat from curious George and let me tell you that made this infinitely scarier
SAME HAHA
HELP
It wasn’t until I read this comment that I realized that I, too, pictured the man from Curious George 😂
SAME AND I KEPT HEARING THE WORD YELLOW IN THE STORY LOL
is no one going to talk about ryan’s sponsorship segment or like. “my browsing history is something i *definitely* need to keep private” “i don’t need anymore spooky ads on my socials” king this is more terrifying than the story
Because its really rickys browsing history
Well I mean he has to get these stories somehow
Agreed, I could not handle Sponsor Ryan
i love how this started as Shane having to guess it's a real story or not, and now it's just them having a lill story night every weekend
I miss the true or not format. I really liked it.
for me. yes and no. i wish they didnt say theyd have to guess if it was real or not everytime considering you can tell if something is fake 99.9% of the time. i loved having the real stories and every episode id think "ooh i wonder if this will be real or not." we havent had a "real" one since the lady in white and its an alleged story💀💀
if they simply just said "hey we're gonna read scary stories" and reveal some are real, then i wouldnt be upset that it changed and that the guessing game is futile now. like, im pretty sure 2/39 stories are real if my memory is correct, its just really upsetting :/
@@debbiefaisoncook8307 yeah. 2/39 are real and thats such a large ratio 😭😭
the illustrations are seriously sending chills down my spine. kudos to whoever draws these
Mollie ong
ikr?the artist absolutely DEVOURS every illustration in this series
Ikr?? Reminds me of those scary children's scary stories books i love it so much
Hi, I’m part of the team that draws them tysm omggg
@@anti_fascist I'm pretty sure there's only one illustrator doing all of these artworks no?
Isn’t the hat man supposed to be a shared sleep paralysis thing? Like a lot of people wake up and see the hat man during sleep paralysis. I’ve never heard of this version of the hat man
Yea, that's what I thought this was gonna be lol
yeah i was disappointed when it was some unrealistic story
Yea I saw him once
Hat man is also commonly seen by people who experienced child a*use for whatever reason. I have a friend who started experiencing visual hallucinations and he was one of the first they saw, but they had never heard of him before, i only found out about him because of the experience
I thought it was gonna be about an ARG that’s been gaining some traction lately. Silly me
I cannot express how disappointed I am in this story, yet also how I shocked I am that Shan and Ryan made it the funniest fucking thing ever
Yeah I found it kinda lacking. It seemed like a small chapter of a bigger story and the twist did not have a good impact at all.
This is definitely one of those stories that one has to really conjure interpretations for it to make sense, but for a short horror story hot damn it blows.
The way Ryan just went “welp, she’s dead” at the end 🤣🤣🤣
honestly, it was incredibly underwhelming to me. shane and ryan managed to make this better than it was tbh
i put this on the background while working and i didn’t understand a single thing 😢
@@moonjunimo you didn't miss anything.
I'm gonna guess this is all just a metaphor for dementia , the scary monster neighbors are just her regular neighbors she no longer recognizes who she believes are trying to break into her house when they're actually just trying to see how she's doing, maybe Marie is a manifestation of her desire to have the ability to take care of herself again or something, and the hat man is her son who she hasn't seen in a long time , dressed similarly to how he did when he was a child in hopes it would help her remember him or something like that. Then ofc all the bad "evil neighbors" would disappear when he came because they knew there was someone checking up on her etc. And finally at the end she dies scared and confused (basically feeling all the things Marie is feeling) never having recognized her son (seeing as how the Hat Man's face was never visible etc) and ultimately dieing "alone." Never having realized what was truly going on around her.
I would agree except that in the beginning of the story Olivia mentioned that her (Sarah’s) son was deceased
@@gabbygold2692 OHHHHHHH
I would be scared too considering I know an old lady with dimentia/Alzheimer's(not sure) who's own daughter yells at her 24/7 and even gives death threats to her... Poor lady can't even get off her seat without getting yelled at
I don't think the story is bad, but it's hard for me to be scared when I'm mostly just confused. Though, I prefer when things are more grounded in reality, since I can convince myself that could actually happen to me, rather than laughing at the silly Hat Man.
if it helps with reality, people who have taken certain types of drugs have reported seeing something called "the hat man"
I thought it would be far more scary if it was... less real? I don't know, somehow I understood too much of what's going on. These people are trying to kill me, this man controls them, I need to hide from them. Very simple in the character's shoes even if the context is more absurd and ridiculous. It would've been actually scary if the protagonist entered the house and suddenly there were no more noises from outside and everyone was gone, I think, and the story progressed with her not knowing what to do
Yeah I like to feel like the stories could happen to me
@@noabinnendijk361 that’s fair maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention because as soon as it started getting supernatural I subconsciously tuned out
@@evelynneclipse2069 that’s why I’m not scared of monster movies but I am scared of true stories- those keep me up at night
Ryan was way scarier during the sponsorship than the actual story, he looked like a kidnapper 👹
It was viscerally terrifying, having Ryan say "my browser history is definitely something that should stay private" like that to me took ten years off my life.
@@Jo-sv9io lmaoo same I’m very concerned 💀🧍♀️
lmao i agree
😂😂😂 tea
@@Jo-sv9ioDahmer vibes.
Cool story, but I'm definitely left more confused than scared. There's lots of unresolved stuff that won't ever get answered.
I'm guessing this story exists to fish for interpretations given the ambiguity of the ending, but in return it lacks that oomph that the best episodes had which really made them scary.
Judging from the ending, i personally believe that the hat man was just her son, who’d continued using magic from his childhood, coming to both say goodbye to his mother and grieve her death, and she looked scared because she either couldn’t recognize her son or that she recognized her son but was horrified at what he’d become
That’s what i though while watching at least
I don’t think he’s the boogeyman or babadook or something, just a person changed to the extreme through magic
Overall, ok episode, but i like previous ones more
Also, there’ always the idea that this was all dementia, a thing produced by the old woman’s mind
And the hat man’s lanky appearance was just her imagining what her son would be/was like all grown up
@@elipse371 That's a pretty good interpretation of things actually. Though it doesn't really scream scary but it's certainly interesting
@@elipse371 Wait she looked scared when she saw him? I thought she was crying tears of joy to see her little tall boy.
@@Parasolhyena they describe it as scared or something, but the narrator could just be misinterpreting what’s really happening
Instead of crying in fear, as you said, she may be crying in joy to see her son again in her final moments
Shane being a devil like: “You can eat the bones. They’re very fragile and chewy.”
loved the tension of this story, very spooky. just needs a better conclusion
I'd say that Ryan claiming a person in a doorway is scary might be related to feeling entrapped. Also, the way the door helps form a silhouette, and frames it, may make someone seem more physically imposing while potentially obscuring their other features (only in an exterior door under intense daylight or at night backlit.)
the face ryan made when shane described the sardines as “fragile and chewy” is a great example of a right frown
Lmao
In My Chemical Romance's famous song; Welcome to the Black Parade, Gerard Way said it was based off the concept that when you die, death comes to you in the vision of your favourite memory. For Sarah, her favourite memory may have been the one with her grandson that is seen in the picture, and thus, that is how death came for her.
That was actually a really good take! It makes the story a little more enjoyable too, rather then the complete disappointment it felt like after hearing it originally
@@Jasmine-uw8qw omg I'm glad someone has taste here 🤘😔
as soon as i saw mcr, black parade, and gerard way, i screamed until my parents told me to shut up 😂
@@chewymint5224 im so sorry your parents yelled at you but this is the funniest shit ive ever seen
Awesome insight!! This makes the story much more interesting
This story is chaotic, it has a new villain every 3 paragraphs 😭
20:30 I think the reason that people standing in a doorway is scary is because they’re seen as blocking an exit
Shane sharing an uncomfortable amount about sardines
Also Shane: "HEY WHERES THE FREAKING HAT MAN!"
This story seemed to be pieces of a puzzle that didn't quite come together, or even belong to the same final picture.
Maybe during the hours that the hat man sat there, Sarah was seeing old memories and reliving moments from her life, that's why she was crying. Maybe only she could hear him speak
Pausing this to attend therapy real quick feels like such an odd “reward” but here we are. I love y’all and how you mix comedy with horror so seamlessly, it makes for a great watching experience every time
The hat man was her son. He had come back to take her to the afterlife. Ringing of a bell anounces that someone's time has come.
The "people" who attacked the house were spirits trapped in limbo and the fact that a person could see them was a no no hence them chasing her and going after her. I think the reason they left when he came was because he had claim to her soul and he was going there to take her.
I figured out the part where the hat man was her son, but I couldn't figure out the rest. Thank you for your comment, it now makes sense.
this explanation makes the most sense imo
Having just lost my grandmother to dementia my first impression was that it was a metaphor for alzheimers. Everything getting crazy around twilight sounds like "sundowning". I think this one is only scary if you have watched someone going through it.
I really miss the stories that were experienced or at least more grounded in reality. If the first few paragraphs sound like they're written by an English major, I know it's gonna be another fairy tale
i agree, i’m not a big fan of these unrealistic ones. for example, i really enjoyed the one with the decapitated heads and the twist at the end. it was neat
@@inuekai which one was that?
@@anastasia6455 Are You Scared Of The Face In The Window. Definitely one of the better written stories on this series
@@calebduarte5255 Thanks a lot!
i know they said somewhere that they stopped doing the realistic stories and the whole "is it real or fake" stuff bc they said they struggled to read a story and not feel great concern for the author and such, and thats when it switched to the more outlandish ones. i agree with you though
Ryan’s frown is scary and adorable at the same time
I felt like we didn’t even get to know any characters, so there was no concern when they were in danger and no sadness when they died :/
I have to compliment the audio editing. It really helps to create the perfect atmosphere. Great episode!
This story was nice and creepy, but I miss the really terrifying ones like the one about the face in the window or the thing in the woods. Those kept me up at night, scared me half to death.
Yes!!!
Sometimes people need mediocre horror stories
Ryan's frown is the cutest thing I've ever seen omgg. Shane telling him to tighten it was the cherry on top. Long live the ghoul boys.
I couldn't stop laughing at it. 🤣 Ryan trying to scowl like an old lady is hilarious!
Lady: *verbally assaults the narrator*
Shane: I’m a fan.
I am too.
Weird pacing and structuring in this story. It goes from 0 to 11 with absolutely no buildup and then drops the reader almost as soon as the big scares are over with precious few insights to chew on. I don't know if there was meant to be more there that got cut for length or if this was a case of having an idea for something that would be really scary and not knowing so much how to couch it in a story. There's good meat here but it needs more bones (unlike sardines).
shane going directly from a tiny creepy tangent about sardine bones being pleasant to chew into a loud "HEY WHERE'S A FACKING A HATMAN" as a distraction was really good
Good job from the boys making the story a lot more entertaining than it probably deserved.
The photograph at the end was like "author's first twist".
This story really reminds me of Little Nightmares 2. Like, a LOT. The TV static, the people looking up at the sky that turn into aggressive zombies, and the hat man who used to be a child are all quite similar. Is the hat man an established mythical creature? Very cool if so.
Was literally thinking the same!
yeah it's way too similar to be a coincidence. Very unoriginal in my opinion, it's literally the same exact concept.
someone mentioned that a lot of people see a similar figure in sleep paralysis but idk
I haven’t even played the second, but I connected the story a lot to the mannerisms of characters from the first.
Im so glad I wasn’t the only one! I kept thinking that everything seemed so similar to little nightmares and was about to comment 😂
If Shane wasn’t a youtuber he definitely would be the owner of a hat shop
This story was chaotic from the beginning to the end 💀 the very first words was just them destroying a old lady they didn't even meet yet ?? 😭😭
"Why are you doing that with your mouth???"
"...I'm talking?"
shout out to the artist for all these by the way, excellent job as always giving visuals to the story! the credits say her name is mollie ong, so hey, hell of a job as always mollie :]
YES I'VE BEEN BINGING THIS SERIES AGAIN AND NOW THERES A NEW ONE!
AAA ME TOO
There’s 2 new ones :>
Literally same!!
Saaame!
I think the author chose to be a little too mysterious about it for the writing style to work. All stories and styles are different and sometimes explaining things is good. There could have been more explanation here. It would be easier to say whether or not the story was well-written if it felt finished, but it's hard to judge if something was done well if you aren't even sure what it was doing.
I like these videos a lot. I’ve been too depressed to eat or sleep much, and these really help while I’m working or trying to sleep. Being momentarily spooked by a silly story told by some genuinely funny, nice people is a lot better than crying. It reminds me that there are things in life outside of my currently very ugly mind.
Raymond K Hessel...
Hope things get better ♡
I went through the same thing in 2020. Came out of it. Trust me just give it some time. Try to keep everything lighthearted, laugh at most things, keep busy. Time will pass and things will change. You'll stop believing the nasty things your mind makes you believe. Bad times never last.
@@tahiranaveen @Sofia
Thank you. 💜
Genuinely hope it gets better for you love
Old rule in storytelling, if a detail is specifically mentioned that seems like it's irrelevant to the story, it's going to come back in some way. As soon as they mentioned the lady's son and husband being dead, I knew the hat man would have to be one of them and more likely the son since it's more unusual for a child to die before the parent. And the fact that the lady was crying as he stood there convinced me even more that she was crying because this was her dead son.
She was happy and ready to die. The son was like Dr. Sleep or an angel comforting her.
what you're describing here is a narrative principle called Chekhov's gun!
Am I the only one who absolutely loves the illustrator for these stories? They do such a great job with depicting what the story teller is trying to portray and can draw some true immense expressions. I love it so much! Really pulls me deeper into the story
I’m about 90% sure whoever wrote this pulled most of it from Little Nightmares 2. There are a looooot of similar details.
Dude I'm so glad someone else said this. The tvs and hat man I'm like wtf this is little nightmares lol.
This is EXACTLY what I was going to comment. The TV really tipped me off and then when they said he was really tall and thin, I was sure. Still a great effort on the story though
I'm way too in love with little nightmares 2
i was thinking the same thing !! lol
now i’m mad at myself cause i love little nightmares and didn’t pick up on that
Duuuuuude I just wanted to say I still get the chills late at night because of the face of that red decepated man on the girl's window tale that y'all once told us about, like, fucking horrifying still, everytime I look at my window late at night I got to double check, loved it.
Saaaaame! By far their scariest story
thought this was gonna be the "me after i take 17 benadryl and start seeing the hat man" tweet but this works too i guess
Shane: "Then I looked out the window and saw a man with a big hat!"
Hat Man: "Hi, I'm Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome!"
I haven’t watched these two in years and the state of their hair now has me dead
I have a feeling each episodes of **are you scared** is going to slowly show how derange Shane is becoming
The prose in this story killed me it was so wildly try hard. "my bones my heart and my eardrums rippled" buddy what're you doing
bro deadass 💀 like chill out fr, you're writing a story for the Buzzfeed Unsolved guys, not publishing a book
@@beckettmaffei im saying ive read better prose in half rate nosleep creepypastas, this is honestly one of the worst theyve read in terms of content AND prose
@@SpookiestAlice ik, i'm agreeing with you
@@beckettmaffei oh lmao sorry i thought you were mad at me for taking this so seriously
ikr 😭 like please try reading a real book for inspiration or something because that shit doesnt make any sense
This style looks like scary stories to tell in the dark
To answer Shane’s question, there are many stories of that hat man, and they are… like.. oh my god.. you just have to check them out for yourself to truly understand but this is a different version to what I have normally heard.
how is ryan's frown just adorable but his creepy smile is exactly what I imagined when he once described his fear of a smiling double of his father???
What videos was that in?
5:21 19:37 petition to give ryan a scary story with some romance in it so it can finally fulfil shane’s need for a love story
Author must not have known the hatman has been an already established entity or was trying to fish some popularity from it, either way I came with really high expectations and left pretty dissapointed, would've loved to see a well-written story about it
EXACTLY
Absolutely phenomenal writing, thank you Bikram Mann!
The ad was the creepiest part of the episode! Ryan's voice, OMG.
12:32 actually scared the shit out of me and I audibly screamed “RYAN!” the minute he looked up and now I can’t stop laughing 😂
Ryan: “Why are you doing that with your mouth?”
Shane: “Talking?”
I thought this was ‘Are You Scared?’, not ‘Between Two Ferns’ 😂
when i was younger i had an imaginary friend called 'the man in the hat'. he stood in the corner of my room where all the shadows collect. he's always been friendly. i still imagine him there from time to time. i can confirm that hat man is chill.
The fact that “Battling Ram” & “Battering Ram” both work in the context is perfe🎉😭
Someone needs to take this writer’s thesaurus away. It sounded like a college kid trying to make a word quota. Rough, very rough.
I couldn't even get through it. Not every sentence needs to be 10/10 dramatic.
The boys look more disheveled (in a good way) each episode, and honestly I relate. Vibe with the chaos
They usually record AYS after Too Many Spirits, so they're probably hung over 😂
The "creepy" angle of Ryan really gives me toddler with an iPad vibes
SHOUT OUT TO THE ILLUSTRATOR MOLLIE! Insanely good art as usual, we love to see it! These episodes wouldn't be the same without your amazing visuals.. so thank you so much!
Shane: “if everybody’s doing it I’m gonna do it too”
Ryan: “yeah…”
sounded like the most disappointed yet accepting ‘yeah’ I’ve ever heard, he was just like yup I guess that’s Shane hahaha
10:23
If i had a hat company i would 100% sponsor you Shane dw
We need more relatives stories like in the second season those truly did bring fear 💀
the hat man and screaming vacant people reminds me of little nightmares 2; odd and disturbing creatures i like that
I was thinking the same thing especially with the TV static and Sarah just staring blankly at it
i watched this for the first time while extremely high and it was a WILD experience. this story goes from grounded in reality to fucking insane so fast I couldn't tell if I was enjoying it or not lmao
"What just happened?"
"We'll find out."
"We won't, that's the end of the story!"
"WHAT?!"
That was my reaction lol
Ryan’s voice definitely makes the story sound scary, but then I’m quickly comforted by Shane’s banter 😭😭👏🏼
Shane serving looks as usual
ikr, he so fine
The start of the story is so wildly different from the rest of it that it felt very jarring
The hat man visits when someone takes too much benadryl
The hat man appeared for a hot minute only, doing nothing, yet managed to become the title. A born star me thinks!
love a good usage of “me thinks”
🤣
The biggest plot twist was The Hat Man actually showing up. Also, now I’m thinking of The Batman, but The Hat Man
Could you occasionally throw in a couple true stories once-in-a-while? It was a cool twist last season when you announced a story was actually true at the end a couple times.
I agree! They ask for stories to be around 2500 words, so it's probably hard to take a true story and stretch it that long unless you're a talented writer
They stopped doing true stories because it's hard/icky to banter and joke about people's real life traumas. They're not gonna do any more true stories.
@@charminsi can at least hope for stories that sound like they could be real :/ the last couple episodes i'm more confused than scared because the stories are just over the top, old school creepypasta type stuff
When the story mentions everyone staring up at the sky, almost in anticipation of rain, all I could picture was "The Faculty" with their tendril-like things reaching for the rain... *shiver*
honestly the scariest part was when ryan appeared out of nowhere to talk about vpn
This is like Picnic at Hanging Rock level, Bikram! It’s always scarier when a story isn’t tied up in a nice little bow at the end, and instead leaves literally everything to the imagination. My favorite one so far!
what if this story is just about the caretaker trying to set up grandma with the hat man and it's very romantic and sweet
edit: nevermind💀
edit edit: NEVERMIND NEVERMIND NEVERMIND
the edits are sending me 😂😂
@@sagearkless right? That’s what I was going to say! 😂
still a better love story than twilight.
Hatman's not clapping cheeks?
In my mind I was imagining the Hat Man to look like Turnip-Head from Howl's Moving Castle but I feel like that isn't incredibly accurate.
this is a great example of one of those creepypastas that tries too hard to be scary and in turn is just so unrealistic it's not frightening at all
When Ryan said the sentence where it described Sarah crying while the hat man was in the room, I immediately knew it was either her deceased son or husband
Love that Are you scared? is back, although I'll admit that I miss having the intrigue of finding out if the story is real or not
So basically what we learned is Ryan can't frown without looking cute.