Looking for true scary stories that will haunt you long after you’ve read them? Filipino Reddit subreddits are packed with creepy encounters that range from weird to downright terrifying.
We’ve dug through thousands of true scary stories on reddit users have posted on r/phhorrorstories, r/ParanormalPH, and r/Philippines to bring you the most upvoted, most discussed, and most nightmare-inducing accounts that Pinoys have shared online. From vanishing convenience stores to doppelgangers that appear after near-death experiences, these tales will make you think twice before going out at night.
In This Article:
- The Weird 7-Eleven That Didn’t Exist
- The Dead Friend at the Mall
- The Redditor Who Found Their Own Gravestone
- The Mountain Hiker’s Perfect Copy
- The Santo Niño That Moved at Night
- The Ghost That Recorded Your Voice
- Doppelgangers After Near-Death Experiences
- The Shopping Mall Sealed After Ondoy
- Maria Labo: The Urban Legend That Shut Down Schools
- Taxi: The Headless Passenger
Here are the stories that kept Filipino Redditors awake and looking over their shoulders.
1. The Weird 7-Eleven That Didn’t Exist
When: 2023 (posted September 2025)
Subreddit: r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: r/Both-Illustrator6066
Imagine: You’re on a staycation at a condo near one of Metro Manila’s biggest malls. It starts raining. Your girlfriend suggests waiting it out at the 7-Eleven downstairs. Simple, right?
Not quite.
The couple ran through the rain to Jollibee instead. Back in their unit, the girlfriend nervously asked her boyfriend to confirm something. She described seeing the 7-Eleven fully operational – bright lights, a male cashier, customers shopping around. Everything looked normal.
Her boyfriend checked Google Maps. The store had been closed for quite some time.
What makes this story particularly creepy is how ordinary it seemed. No dramatic apparitions or scary sounds. Just a convenience store that shouldn’t have been there, looking exactly as it would on any regular night. The post exploded on r/phhorrorstories, becoming one of 2025’s most upvoted Philippine horror stories.
One commenter shared their own parallel experience with a milk tea shop in Quezon City. They saw someone mopping inside, walked closer to order, and found the shop completely empty and locked. These phantom businesses operating in plain sight? That’s the stuff that makes you question what you’re actually seeing when you walk around Metro Manila at night.
2. The Dead Friend at the Mall
When: Shared September 2025
Subreddit: r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: r/heyfred1000
This one starts innocently enough. Someone bumps into an old friend from the province at the mall. They haven’t seen each other in years. They grab a meal together, catch up on life, laugh about old times. A perfectly normal reunion.
The horror hits when they get home.
Their friend had been dead for two years.
Think about that for a second. You just spent hours with someone – talking, eating, creating new memories. They seemed completely real, completely alive. Then you discover you were having lunch with a ghost who apparently still enjoys hanging out at malls.
This story came from a viral thread asking r/phhorrorstories users to share the creepiest tales they’d encountered on the subreddit. It really hit home with people because of how personal and close the encounter was. This wasn’t a shadowy figure or a distant sighting. This was a full conversation, a shared meal, quality time spent with someone who physically shouldn’t exist anymore.
Filipino culture has always maintained that the dead sometimes return to visit loved ones.
3. The Redditor Who Found Their Own Gravestone
When: Before September 2025
Subreddit: r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: r/heyfred1000
Here’s where things get meta and deeply disturbing.
A Redditor frequently posted on r/phhorrorstories, sharing their paranormal experiences about once a week. The community knew them. They were active, engaged, part of the conversation. Their real-life horror stories attracted steady followers.
Then came the final post.
The user uploaded photos. One showed a gravestone. It had their name on it. It had their birthdate. It had a death date.
After that post, the account vanished. Gone. No more stories, no more comments, no more activity. Other users tried reaching out. Nothing. The account might as well have never existed.
Comments on this story perfectly captured everyone’s reaction: “Mapapamura nalang ako dito hahaha” and “OMG grabe, kinilabutan ako.” The combination of real identity, physical proof, and complete disappearance created a mystery that still haunts the community.
Was it an elaborate prank? A warning they chose to heed? Something darker we can’t explain? Nobody knows. But the timing – post your own gravestone, then vanish forever – is straight out of a horror movie plot.
4. The Mountain Hiker’s Perfect Copy
When: Shared September 2025
Subreddit: r/Philippines via r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: r/heyfred1000
Mount Banahaw has a reputation. Locals know it. Hikers respect it. The mountain holds spiritual significance, and strange things happen there.
Two friends were hiking when one gave a strange warning: “Don’t look back.” The friend asked why. “I’ll explain when we get down.”
At the base of the mountain, the truth came out.
Something had been following them the entire hike. Not just following – it looked exactly like the friend. Same face, same clothes, same everything. A perfect copy walking behind them on the trail.
Doppelganger stories are common in Philippine folklore, but experiencing one on a supposedly sacred mountain adds layers of meaning. Was it a nature spirit testing them? An entity mimicking the living? A glitch in reality?
The hiking community took notice. Mount Banahaw already had warnings about respecting the land and following proper rules. This story reinforced why those warnings exist. Some places in the Philippines demand reverence, and when you don’t give it, strange duplicates might just walk home with you.
5. The Santo Niño That Moved at Night
When: Original incident in 1993, posted January 2018
Subreddit: r/ParanormalPH
Original Post: r/agilasigma
Religious statues are supposed to bring comfort and protection. A Santo Niño in your room should make you feel safe, right?
Not when it moves on its own.
A Redditor shared their childhood experience from 1993. Their grandmother placed a two-foot-tall Santo Niño statue on a cabinet in their room. The first night alone in the room, they woke up feeling watched. The statue had moved – now facing their bed instead of the center of the room. By morning, it was back in place.
This pattern continued. For three nights straight, they felt observed. On the fifth morning, they noticed something that confirmed their fears. The statue sat on a perfectly clean circle on the otherwise dusty cabinet surface. It had definitely been moving.
What makes this story resonate is how common these statues are in Filipino homes. Almost every Catholic household has religious imagery. The idea that something meant to protect you might actually be watching you, moving when you sleep, creates a deep psychological unease.
The concept even has a name: automatonophobia, the fear of human-like figures. When that figure is supposed to be holy, the fear multiplies. Comments flooded in from people sharing similar experiences with their own religious statues, creating an entire thread of moving santos.
6. The Ghost That Recorded Your Voice
When: Original incident 2009, sale in 2011, posted September 2025
Subreddit: r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: r/itsdoubleyou
Typhoon Ondoy devastated Marikina in 2009. Hundreds died. The trauma scarred survivors permanently. For some homes, the tragedy left more than just water damage.
A Redditor shared their coworker’s story. After Ondoy flooded their Provident Village home, they renovated and sold it to an expat couple. Months later, the new owners called with a disturbing update.
They heard voices at night. People calling for help. They recorded it on video.
When the original owners watched the footage, they recognized the voices. Their own voices. Their mother’s voice. The exact pleas for help they screamed while trapped on their roof as water rose around them in 2009.
The technical term mentioned in comments: “fragments.” Traumatic memories so intense they somehow imprint on a location. The house had recorded their terror and played it back years later. This wasn’t a random haunting. This was their own worst moment, trapped in the walls, repeating endlessly.
Other commenters mentioned hearing the same story on the “Wag Kang Lilingon” podcast. Similar accounts emerged from other Ondoy-affected areas. The flood took lives. But some voices never stopped calling for help.
7. Doppelgangers After Near-Death Experiences
When: Posted August 2025
Subreddit: r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: r/SkiddPlate
Doppelgangers became r/phhorrorstories’ most recurring theme in 2025, but this particular account stands out among real-life horror stories.
A brother-in-law had a close call with death. Shortly after, while the family ate dinner, someone heard his motorcycle arrive. They saw him walk past, heading to the bathroom. He never came out.
The family insisted he hadn’t arrived yet.
But the poster was adamant. They saw him. They heard his motorcycle. They watched him walk through the kitchen. Yet when they checked, nobody was there. Minutes later, the actual brother-in-law arrived home.
The comment section exploded with similar stories. One particularly chilling account: A mother was seen pregnant and sick by someone inquiring about a vacant house. But the mother wasn’t pregnant, had no illness, and didn’t live there anymore. The contact number was only on the gate. Whoever called had talked directly to her doppelganger.
Philippine folklore suggests seeing your own double means death is near. When someone survives a near-death experience, does their double get confused? Does it briefly exist in our world before realizing its person is still alive? These stories suggest that moment when you almost die might actually create something that continues walking around for a little while.
8. The Shopping Mall Sealed After Ondoy
When: Original incident 2009, discussions ongoing
Posted: September 2025
Subreddit: r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: r/Sonnybass96
Some places never recover from tragedy. SM Sta. Mesa’s parking area is one of them.
Multiple Redditors confirmed the same story. During Ondoy, the parking area connecting to the supermarket flooded badly. People were trapped. The supermarket had shutters. When water rushed in, those shutters became death traps.
Years later, visitors still report that smell. You know the one. The parking section remains sealed off. The walkway to the supermarket: permanently closed. Some say vehicles were seen transporting coffins from that area after the flood subsided.
But the eeriest detail? The time slip at SM North.
A commenter shared a story from the early ’90s. Someone flushed a toilet in the old SM North bathroom. The lights flickered. When they steadied, the person stood in a vast rice field with a narrow road. An old truck loaded with rice sacks passed by. Eventually, they found their way back.
SM North was built on rice fields. For a moment, someone saw what existed before the mall. Before the construction. Before the city consumed the farmland.
These shopping mall stories create a unique horror. Places designed to feel safe, familiar, and commercial hiding layers of tragedy and weird time glitches beneath their polished floors.
9. Maria Labo: The Urban Legend That Shut Down Schools
When: Original legend from early 2000s, discussions from 2014-2025
Subreddit: r/Philippines, r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: r/Ok_Strawberry_888
Every region of the Philippines has their version of Maria Labo. The details change, but the core remains terrifyingly consistent. It’s one of the most widespread Philippine horror stories that transcends online communities.
A housewife snaps. Poverty, marital problems, or madness – the cause varies. She kills her children, cooks them, and stores their heads in the refrigerator. Her husband discovers the horror and strikes her face with a machete, leaving a distinctive scar. She escapes.
Now she wanders town to town, kidnapping and eating children. She walks at night carrying a bloody sack. The machete scar on her face is her trademark.
What makes Maria Labo significant isn’t just the story. It’s the impact.
One Redditor from a small town remembered childhood panic when rumors spread she was near. Police increased patrols. Stores closed early. Schools sent kids straight home, no playing allowed. Mysterious child deaths were attributed to her. After weeks, the panic subsided. She was never caught.
A Zamboanga Sibugay user confirmed that in their region, both public and private schools suspended classes. Neighborhood watch groups formed. Local news covered it extensively. Police went on high alert.
Some believe Maria Labo was real and continues moving between provinces. Others say she represents shared fears about motherhood, poverty, and violence against children. Either way, she became real enough to shut down schools and change behavior across multiple regions.
The line between urban legend and reality gets fuzzy when thousands of people change their lives based on a story.
10. Taxi: The Headless Passenger
When: Posted August 2, 2025
Subreddit: r/phhorrorstories
Original Post: [deleted]
This highly upvoted 2025 post retells one of the Philippines’ most enduring urban legends, blending real commuter fears with supernatural horror.
Late at night, a passenger hailed a taxi, exhausted from work and eager to get home. The quiet driver offered no small talk, only drove steadily onward. The passenger settled into the back seat, grateful for the silence after a long day.
Partway through the ride, the driver glanced at his rearview mirror. He froze in terror.
The passenger in his back seat had no head.
What would you do? Scream? Stop the car? The driver did neither. Terrified yet outwardly composed, he began changing his route. He took detours through well-lit streets. Crowded areas. Anywhere with people and light. The headless passenger simply rode along, seemingly unaware of the driver’s growing panic.
When the ride finally ended, the driver turned to face his passenger. The head was back. The person looked normal, tired, ready to go inside and sleep. But the driver knew what he’d seen.
He whispered urgently: “Burn your clothes and pray. Go home and don’t look back. You brought something with you tonight.”
The passenger, confused but sensing the driver’s genuine fear, followed the advice. Clothes burned. Prayers said. No questions asked.
This story represents a classic Filipino urban legend that has circulated for decades. The 2025 Reddit post brought it back into conversation, with commenters sharing their own versions and similar taxi encounters. Some claim it happened to a relative. Others swear their friend’s cousin experienced it. The details shift, but the core remains the same.
What makes this story particularly Filipino is the driver’s response. No dramatic confrontation. No refusal of service. Just quiet acceptance of the supernatural and practical advice for dealing with it. Burn the clothes. Pray. Move forward.
The taxi setting adds another layer of relatability. Thousands of Filipinos take taxis home late at night after work. That moment of sitting alone in the back seat, watching streetlights pass, half-asleep. The vulnerability of being driven by a stranger through dark streets. This story takes that everyday experience and adds one terrifying detail.
Comments on the Reddit post debated whether this was based on real events or pure folklore. Some users pointed out that similar stories exist across Asia. Others insisted their family members had experienced it firsthand. The line between legend and lived experience blurs in the comments, with each person adding their own connection to the tale.
Why These Stories Go Viral
Filipino Reddit horror communities have exploded in popularity because these true scary stories on reddit users share feel different from typical ghost tales. They name places you can visit, malls you shop at, mountains you can hike. Having all these details makes them believable in a way that vague “I saw a ghost” stories aren’t.
The numbers back this up. The Philippines hit 35 million Reddit users in 2025, making it one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing markets on the platform. r/Philippines sits at 3.48 million subscribers, gaining about 418 new members every single day as of November 2025. The horror-focused r/phhorrorstories? It pulls in 211,000 visitors weekly and sees 5,100 new posts each week. Filipinos clearly can’t get enough of paranormal content.
These stories also capture uniquely Filipino experiences. Santo Niños in bedrooms, Ondoy trauma, barangay panic over Maria Labo, the specific cultural weight of seeing your own doppelganger – these elements connect with people because they’re part of Philippine culture. Philippine horror stories thrive when they blend the familiar with the frightening.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these stories real or just creative writing?
Most posts on r/phhorrorstories and r/ParanormalPH are tagged as genuine experiences by users. The community takes authenticity seriously and often calls out suspicious stories. These real-life horror stories are what make the subreddits so compelling – the engagement patterns suggest readers believe most of these accounts.
Why are there so many Ondoy-related ghost stories?
Typhoon Ondoy in 2009 killed over 700 people and traumatized thousands more. The scale of death and destruction in such a short time created lasting psychological and possibly paranormal impacts on affected areas. Similar patterns appear after other disasters worldwide.
What’s the deal with Filipino doppelgangers?
Philippine folklore has long included concepts of the “kapid” or double. Seeing your own doppelganger traditionally signals approaching death. The 2025 surge in doppelganger stories on Reddit might reflect increased awareness rather than more people actually experiencing it.
Should I avoid these places mentioned in the stories?
The locations are mostly ordinary places – shopping malls, condos, mountains. If you’re curious about the paranormal, visiting these spots is generally safe during regular hours. Just follow local customs, show respect, and don’t provoke anything you don’t understand.
How can I share my own story on these subreddits?
Join r/phhorrorstories or r/ParanormalPH on Reddit. Read the community guidelines, tag your post appropriately (Experience, Discussion, Question), and provide specific details. The community appreciates dates, locations, and context. Be prepared to answer questions in the comments.
Why do religious statues moving seem so common in the Philippines?
Catholic imagery is present in most Filipino homes. The combination of religious devotion, cultural respect for these objects, and the sheer number of statues in circulation means more opportunities for strange experiences. Whether these are actual paranormal events or psychological things remains debated.
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