Penpal

Penpal evolved from a series of “creepypasta” short stories. Although creepypasta can be categorized under the umbrella genre of horror, Penpal’s redevelopment as a suspense novel provides insight into the cultural impact of creepypasta.

Though the term originally referred to works of text-based fiction, creepypasta now generally refers to any horror content that computer users generate and post on the Internet for public consumption. Broad production conditions allow it to take on multimedia forms, including videos and images as well as creepypasta literature. As a result, creepypasta is often seen as a reliable source for popular horror content, and different users to work together to expand a piece of content. The most notable example of creepypasta is Slender Man, a character created in 2009 by Eric Knudsen for the Something Awful website forum. Since its creation, Slender Man has become the subject of videos, games, and other media. Other popular examples of creepypasta include some of the Backrooms and SCP Foundation content.

Central to the definition of creepypasta is the use of the Internet. Unlike traditionally published horror fiction, creepypasta relies on the interactive qualities of Internet platforms to underscore the mood and dread of a given work of horror and to encourage user engagement.