The SCP Foundation is one giant collaborative project made up of a community of amazing writers coming together to write some real scary shit. From urban legend-esque monsters that keep you up at night to horrifying body horror plagues, there’s no limit to the strange objects, monsters, people, illnesses, events, and all things in between that you can find on this site.
This is a list of some of what I consider to be the best and most terrifying SCPs.
I’m ranking these SCPs on a number of different criteria: article rating (how well-written/enjoyable the article is), existential crisis level (how much this SCP makes me question our existence and the fragility and futility of it all), and whether or not painful deaths are involved. They often are.
Please note: As much as I’d love to be able to say I’ve read every single SCP there is, there’s just way too many for that to be the case. These are my favorites of those that I’ve read so far, but you may disagree, and that’s OK! If you have a favorite scary SCP that you wish had been included, I’d love to check it out, so be sure to leave it in the comments!
Let’s begin.
Object Class Guide for New Readers: Safe: Objects classified as Safe are fairly easy to contain and tend to be less dangerous than their Euclid and Keter counterparts. That does not mean, however, that Safe objects are entirely safe; it just means that whatever danger they pose can be more easily prevented and contained, and anyone who comes into contact with these objects should still exercise caution. Euclid: Less predictable than Safe objects, Euclid objects tend to be harder to contain and deadlier. However, following proper containment procedures usually means these objects don't pose too much of a threat so long as you're careful. They'll still probably kill you at some point, though. Keter: Unpredictable and extremely difficult to contain, Keter objects are also typically the most dangerous. In fact, in the event of a containment breach, if the Keter object in question is dangerous enough, nuking its entire containment site to neutralize it is not beyond the realm of possibility. Note: It is possible for objects originally classified as one class to be ranked up or ranked down depending on their behavior. See SCP-1048 as an example, which was moved from Safe classification to Keter after a certain incident.
10. SCP-643: The Cannibal Chocolates
Object Class: Safe
What It Does: Anyone who eats these chocolates will become extremely appealing to those around them, and will be consumed.
Why It Gets Its Classification: It’s pretty easy to contain these. Just don’t eat them, and you should be fine.
Article Rating: 6.5/10
Existential Crisis Level: 2/10
Painful Death? Being cannibalized alive sounds pretty painful, so I’d say yes.
If you are new to the SCP Foundation and (understandably) overwhelmed by the myriad of articles you can read through, I highly recommend watching Tats TopVideos. They occasionally do SCP roundups where they list out scariest SCPs, not only reading out the articles but including footage and interviews that make these SCPs feel eerily realistic. It was through watching their “Top 18 Food & Beverage SCPs” on YouTube that I came across SCP-643.
It’s a common misconception that the object class rankings for SCPs are intended to represent how dangerous the object is, with Safe objects being the least dangerous and the most useful. SCP-643 is a good example of why “Safe” doesn’t always mean, well, “safe.”
Imagine if chocolates like these were mass-produced, and unknowing civilians consumed them by the dozens. According to the article, the chocolates were originally discovered by the Foundation when several bakery employees cannibalized their co-workers and customers, which means these chocolates (or whatever method was used to create them) could pose a serious threat if left unchecked.
These chocolates don’t make me question reality too much—hence the lower existential crisis rating—and they may not be seen as the best SCP out there to most, but they do manage to make one of my favorite desserts just a little bit less appetizing. That’s good enough for me.
9. SCP-409: The Unfriendly Crystal
Object Class: Keter
What It Does: Crystallizes anything that touches it.
Why It Gets Its Classification: I checked out the comments on this one and saw some people say it should be classified as Euclid because it’s not all that difficult to contain. I agree with this, but also understand why it could still be classified as Keter since touching it even a little bit is basically a (horrific) death sentence. Not fun.
Article Rating: 7/10
Existential Crisis Level: 2/10
Painful Death? Yep
You remember that episode in Avatar: The Last Airbender where King Bumi puts a ring of Jennamite on Sokka and Katara’s fingers, and it slowly begins to engulf and suffocate them? This is basically the rated-R version of that. Not only does it slowly envelop and suffocate victims—which is already terrifying in and of itself—but the SCP-409 process is a slow crystallization of the victim “inside and out” that is described as “extremely painful.” If that’s not bad enough, once the victim is entirely crystallized, they explode into thousands of fragments. Yep.
The article, while short, does a terrific job of describing the process in a horrifying and graphic way. It’s gruesome and painful enough that I definitely consider it to be one of the scarier SCPs out there. I ranked the existential crisis level pretty low, however, because while it is a terrifying SCP, it doesn’t make me dread the reality of our existence itself; just makes me kinda scared of crystals.
8. SCP-823: The Angsty Amusement Park
Object Class: Euclid
What It Does: Mysteriously kills anyone who enters its “Red Zone.”
Why It Gets Its Classification: It’s responsible for the deaths of 231 park attendees and 7 SCP personnel by various gruesome and mysterious means, including, uh…eye penetration.
Article Rating: 9/10
Existential Crisis Level: 5/10
Painful Death: Yep
There’s something about abandoned places meant to be filled with joy and innocence and laughing children that makes them incredibly disturbing, and this takes it to the next level. SCP-823 has an unfortunate tendency to kill its guests, from fusing two attendees together “after emerging from the ‘Tunnel of Love’ dark ride” to dismembering guests in its house of mirrors.
I consider this one of the more underrated SCPs. While, sure, abandoned theme parks have been seen in horror before, a part of this particular SCP that I’d overlooked when I read it the first time was the fact that its extremely dangerous, no-entry Red Zones are apparently growing over time. So what happens if it somehow grows out of control? Does that mean everyone could die a graphic, painful, and bizarre death at the hands of whatever entity made this amusement park so deadly? Does it turn places and objects meant to be fun and joyous, like parks and arcades, into horrifying death traps? It’s the mystery of this zone spreading that makes it such a scary SCP, and the reason I’m in the camp that thinks this one should be upgraded to Keter. Its classification, however, has so far stayed Euclid, despite attempts to get it upgraded to Keter (which the O5 council, the mysterious governing body of the entire SCP Foundation, has denied on the grounds of “insufficient justification”).
I absolutely love the morbid instances of civilian deaths included in this article because it’s one of those SCPs that remind you that any normal person in this universe could accidentally come across something as dangerous as this at any moment without realizing. You know, until they’re decapitated while riding a roller coaster or fused to their significant other while smoochin’ in the Tunnel of Love.
7. SCP-201: The Overly Familiar IV Stand
Object Class: Euclid
What It Does: Transports anyone close to it to an alternate dimension where there appears to be no life anywhere.
Why It Gets Its Classification: It’s not too hard to keep it in one place once acquired. The problem is that it transports anyone who gets within 30 meters randomly.
Article Rating: 7/10
Existential Crisis Level: 8.5/10
Painful Death? No, but staying trapped long enough will probably make you wish you were dead.
I think this one was one of the first SCPs that actually gave me a deep sense of existential dread. So maybe it’s just nostalgia talking when I rank this as one of the best SCPs.
This is another one that I found on Tats TopVideos, and maybe that’s why I wanted to put it here. The footage shown is incredibly disconcerting, and it’s very hard to imagine being trapped on a lifeless, lightless planet for as long as eight years, as one unlucky dude apparently did. And all because he made the completely innocuous error of walking a little too close to an old IV stand.
Had to give this one a high existential crisis rating. I could go on and on about the implications of an alternate dimension existing where everyone simply vanished all of a sudden—no bodies, no flora, and no fauna, yet the remains of major cities are present—but the one thing I’ll say that made me want to put this on the list is the fact that it’s not known what became of that version of our world or why that IV stand drags people from our dimension into it.
6. SCP-2852: “Cousin Jonny”: The VERY Overly Familiar Cousin
Object Class: Keter
What It Does: Attends baptisms, weddings, and funerals, using some sort of mind-altering effect to appear as though he had always been part of the family. Starts some insane, borderline Satanic ritual at the event, forcing the guests to do some gross shit, then curses the family.
Why It Gets Its Classification: The article notes that SCP-2852 can’t be caught or prevented from messing up peoples’ events. He’s the ultimate wedding (and baptism, and funeral) crasher.
Article Rating: 9.5/10
Existential Crisis Level: 6/10
Painful Death? Occasionally. Lots of gruesome suicides by those affected by this SCP.
Who is Cousin Jonny, you ask? Why, he’s always been here! He’s a part of the family! He’s here to celebrate the baptism of a newborn baby, the unification of a beautiful couple at their wedding, and/or the life of a deceased loved one at their funeral. He’s hilarious and very personable. Maybe a little too personable, come to think of it…
There’s a lot to this article, and I highly recommend reading all of it. This SCP appears under three different circumstances, known as Blue-Level events (baptisms), White-Level events (weddings), and Black-Level events (funerals), and always brings disaster to the participants of every event it attends. The effect it has varies depending on the event itself, but some highlights include compelling the godparents to eat the skin of the baptized child during Blue-Level events, permanently psychologically and even physically damaging the children of couples married during a White-Level event, and compelling children attending a Black-Level event to consume a “mixture of blood, wood pulp, and dead Tibicen linnei” (cicadas) in a bowl.
I just love how fucking weird this one is. This random Lovecraftian dude just pops into these specific events, starts a heinous ritual that the attendees don’t question at all because they’re so fucked up by whatever mind-altering effect he has on them, and basically puts a curse on the family once the event is over.
I was pretty conflicted about how to rate the crisis level on this one because, while the existence of a being like that is confusing and might make one question its purpose (and maybe by extension, our purpose), it isn’t quite as drastic a crisis level as something like an IV stand dragging you to a version of our world where we just ceased to exist.
If we wanted to get a little existential with it, we could even presume that, because Cousin Jonny can’t be captured or prevented from being part of any event it wants to, maybe a lot of major relationship problems: divorce, domestic abuse, etc, are caused by SCP-2852. We just wouldn’t realize it because part of the effect he has is that he immediately blends in with the family as if he’d “always been there.” Crazy.
4. SCP-3008: Literally Every IKEA Ever
