Spooky stories are Jonathan Dale Bentonjust as much a part of the Halloween season as witches, jack-o’-lanterns and skeletons. There are scary stories for people of all fright levels—from the safety of a “Goosebumps” book (or the delightfully nostalgic 1997 TV adaptation on Netflix), to the cult classic movie “The Exorcist” to a chilling Stephen King novel. 

If you want to expand your spooky story horizons, there are a few ways to easily find new stories, with some help from technology and strangers on the internet. 

Watch this video to see how you can easily enjoy a spooky storytime. 

Scary Stories

Here are some ways to enjoy a spooky treat, without any tricks.

• Smart speaker

Ask your Google Home or Amazon Alexa to tell you a scary story. Some short stories are even interactive, allowing you or your kids to participate in the journey and determine the outcome. Plus, it has some fun sound effects to accompany the tale. Many of these stories are family-friendly and fall more into the category of “dad jokes” than “scary story.”

By the way, you can also ask the digital assistant on your smartphone.

• Artificial Intelligence 

Let Artificial Intelligence (AI) create a scary story for you!

You can prompt these AI systems, like Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT, to tell a scary story. You can also give the AI system more details about what kind of story you want, so consider including more information in the prompt, like asking it to create a tale in the style of your favorite horror author or to include specific characters or lore.

• Reddit

Reddit has many subreddits to explore and get your fix of scary stories. Places like r/nosleep, r/ParanormalEncounters, and r/BackwoodsCreepy are just a few of the places people go to on the platform to share and enjoy scary stories. 

• Videos and Podcasts

Check your favorite video and podcast streaming platforms for scary stories of all kinds, from kid-friendly to tales that only the bravest survive.