How My Horror Video's Went SCARY Viral on TikTok

I've been an amateur horror filmmaker since my 'teens' and have tried almost every platform for video sharing over the years. When I started looking into the popular TikTok app last year I was delighted to find there was a HUGE horror community hiding there amongst the dancing, miming and thirst trap content (look it up). I've now become a viral creator in a relatively short amount of time and hopefully I'll continue to keep up the momentum as I go. So stick around and I'll take you on my horror themed ghost train! who knows, you might even enjoy it...

First Time's The Charm

So after devouring content like a brain-munching zombie fiend I uploaded my first video that I'd made previously for a horror competition. The 15-second short-horror clip was designed to be creepy/make you jump and TikTok audiences went wild for it! After posting it on a quiet Sunday evening, my phone blew up overnight and after a few days the video got a million views. It now sits with a whopping 1.4 million hits and 93k likes!!

Amazed as I was at the response I was still trying to figure out what the platform was capable of doing and how I could use it. Luckily I've been making short horror movies since I had access to a camcorder, so I started to upload those. I got plenty of misses after this video but it was all in the name of progress (I guess) so I kept stumbling along. It seems the shorter the clip the higher the views, not something that worked on YouTube but it's slowly become the norm today (YouTube now has it's own 'shorts' section).

My next big hit was the one above called Chance, this one got another rave response in a short amount of time. Racking up over 150,000 views in a few days. It was great to see people enjoying my work but I was also ready to start creating another type of content that I could make on my own (Covid had a hand in this decision) and I could upload on a regular basis. The real question was what were horror fans reacting to most?

Horror Tales

My next attempt was to try my hand at some "2 Sentence Horror Stories" as I loved reading them on Reddit. A few accounts were sharing popular stories that had been around forever but I was enjoying trying to come up with my own genuinely weird tales with a twist. I'd find myself falling asleep at night and waking up just to write them down in my handy notebook. After a few uploads my account started to pick up again and I had a hit with this one below that received over 143,000 views!

I was having a blast coming up with the stories and editing them into my video's. Usually I'd go out to explore the area where I live and come across an interesting looking tree or an old mausoleum that became my signature backdrops. This would inspire the stories as it gave me a setting to work with and the more interesting the backdrop the more viewers stuck around.

It wasn't an exact science but I was getting more views with this formula but nothing lasts forever as they say and after a few weeks it seemed like I needed to change things up again. Since the written word seemed to be the way to go I started seeing what other accounts were making and see if I could create my own version.

Fact or Fiction?

So cut to my latest style of video, its a collection of fact over fiction as I've discovered people want to really learn something especially if its creepy or unsettling. Having an interest in everything from true crime to ghosts and legends I have been spinning a series of "Did You Know" content for the past 3 months which has gained my profile over 10,000+ followers since January 2022.

This one gained a healthy 518,000 views and most of my video's since have been in the higher thousand view catagory. Some say it's easy to go viral on TikTok and I would agree that yes you can get lucky but can you keep that up? The trick seems to be uploading consistently and replying to your comments. After all, I share my video's to get a reaction, why wouldn't I want to talk to the viewers about them?

I created this follow up series called "Fact or Cap" (cap meaning fake for the modern online community), It was a good excuse to share all sorts of myths and legends that may or may not be true. It's been a fun journey and I must admit I enjoy looking into strange and paranormal cases from around the world (thankfully I'm not the only one).

So, What's Next?

I have no idea lol

Well, quite honestly I'm not sure which direction my video's will go in next and with TikTok ever changing I'll have to keep my finger on the pulse to figure it out. The app used to have a maximum of 1 minute uploads but has now expanded to 10 minutes. I don't know if people are prepared to sit and defy their urge to scroll onto the next video but time will tell I expect. Either way I'll be making horror themed content and continuing to upload consistently as long as I have an audience that wants me.

Why not check out more of my work and follow my TikTok here