101 Best Horror Story Ideas (With a Twist): Scary Writing Prompts

Plot Twist: For the first time after his death Tim saw his classmates who also had got trapped in the burning school bus that day.

• Demon

Writing Prompt on Demon- Every day the demons tried hard to harm the Phillip’s family.

Plot Twist: But the demons didn’t know that Philip was not a normal being but the blood of a demon, a half demon half human

• Horrific

Writing Prompt on Horrific- After spending the first horrific night at their new house, the Potter family decided to leave the place as soon as the sun shines.

Plot Twist: The next morning the neighbors found the whole potter family lying dead in their backyard.

Related: 500 Words Flash Fiction Stories

• Haunted

Writing Prompt on Haunted-Rick and his friends planned the birthday party at a haunted hotel for the excitement but soon at night, they realized that they made the biggest mistake of their life.

 

Plot Twist: The next day Rick and his friends got shocked to see their own dead bodies lying in the hotel lobby, then they realized what had happened to them last night.

 

• Supernatural

Writing Prompt on Supernatural-Jacob never believed in supernatural things until he crossed the path with a shadow which got vanished into the room soon.

 

Plot Twist: One day Jacob again saw that shadow and started following it which took him to a hidden door in the basement which was the way to the other world.  

Plot Twist: When Jason saw the picture of the dead renter, he got shocked as he said he sees her every day in the subway.

Plot Twist: Soon after a while he realized that he was not in the car alone, when he looked back, he got shocked to see Anna, his girlfriend whom he had killed years ago.

Plot Twist: One day he ate all the pills 

Plot Twist: The next day Adam found a skeleton on Jacobs bed and his son was missing. 

Plot Twist: When he reached, he saw the window was broken and a man looking like he was taking the kids into the woods.

Plot Twist: When Alex killed the raven it got turned into a shadow of his dead servant.

Plot Twist: One day Rick told everyone that he believes that the black cat is his sister who had died while saving her cat in the fire.

Plot Twist: She installed a camera in her basement and one day when the light again emerged, she got shocked to see the footage of a portal which was the doors for the spirits coming into this world.

• Shivery

Writing Prompt on Shivery- Everyone suddenly started shivering in the room with fear of an unknown shadow standing on the stairs. Soon the number of shadow started increasing and all the doors get closed itself and the lights went off. 

• Panic

Writing Prompt on Panic- John said his wife not to create panic when someone was continuously knocking very heavily at their door at the midnight. 

 

• Grave

Writing Prompt on Grave- Some nights Rebecca had a nightmare of seeing himself in a grave.

 

Plot Twist: One day it again happened, but this time she found that it was not her dream, but her adoptive parents were doing some black rituals on her while putting her into a grave in their backyard.

Plot Twist: Demi killed all the priests and told her mother that if she wants to see Demi alive than let her live in his daughter’s body. 

• Peculiar

Writing Prompt on peculiar- A sudden chain of bad events started happening when Alex brought a very peculiar painting home which he had bought in the auction.

• Bogeyman

Writing Prompt on Bogeyman-People in the neighborhood got so frightened with the bogeyman that they stopped going out at night.

 

Plot Twist: One day all children of the neighborhood went missing.

• Wrecked

Writing Prompt on wrecked- Everyone in the neighborhood was curious to know about the voices coming from the abandoned wrecked house.

• Dreadful

Writing Prompt on Dreadful- Smith tried hard to forget the dreadful night which he spent alone in the office.

• Death

Writing Prompt on Death- All the unfortunate events started after the death of the Normy black pet cat. 

• Hallucination

Writing Prompt on Hallucination- The weird stranger sitting next to Rebecca on the bus tried to hallucinate her.

• Creepy

Writing Prompt on Creepy- Mark got scared when someone unknown called him at midnight and just saying hello in a very strange and creepy voice ended the call. 

 

• Clown

Writing Prompt on Clown- Everyone was frightened by the unknown clown in the circus roaming at night.

 

Plot Twist: The circus manager said that many years ago their one artist Tim, performing as a clown has died by falling from the roof.

Plot Twist: The spirit killed everyone in the room except little Alina.

• Dracula

Writing Prompt on Dracula- Dracula left the castle as soon as the sun rises.

 

Plot Twist: Later people found that the its was their king Henry, who gets turned into Dracula every night.

 

• Doll

Writing Prompt on Doll- Nick said to the doctor that his little daughter was normal until one day while playing she found an old doll outside her house and brought her home.

• Scared

Writing Prompt on Scared- Jacob got so scared to see the book’s pages started flipping itself when no air was blowing around.

• Unearthly

Writing Prompt on Unearthly- After watching the victim of the incident, everyone said that it was done by an unearthly entity.

• Casket

Writing Prompt on Casket- The casket was filled with old letters written by Noah before his death.

• Presence

Writing Prompt on presence– The priest said that he could feel the presence of an unknown evil entity in the house.

 

Plot Twist: The priest said that the house is possessed by the spirit of a girl who has got murdered in the house many years ago by one of the family members.

Plot Twist: Finally Louis found the cemetery, but got shocked to see his own name written next to Albert grave.

Plot Twist: When Murphy was reading the newspaper he saw the news of the same lady who had died in the subway accident some days ago.

• Nightmares

Writing Prompt on nightmares– Every night Silvia had the nightmares of getting followed by herself.

• Claustrophobic

Writing Prompt on Claustrophobic- Nelson was claustrophobic, but yet he stayed in the wardrobe that whole night to survive.

 

• Bible

Writing Prompt on Bible- After that weird incident, Rachel always used to sleep with the bible in his hands.

• Uncanny

Writing Prompt on uncanny- Every day when Bella was alone in the house, she had an uncanny feeling of someone standing behind her.

 

Plot Twist: Once she looked back and got shocked to see her dead twin sister.

• Entity–

Writing Prompt on the entity- The priest advised the Hopkins family to leave the place as soon as possible as it was possessed by a powerful evil entity.

• Dead dark

Writing Prompt on dead dark- After getting lost on the island the whole troop walked in a dark dead night, but they were not the only people present there.

• Spooky

Writing Prompt on Spooky- Alex the youngest child of Christy had a weird habit of going to spooky places.

Plot Twist: It had been 9 years since Alex went missing when one day Christy found him standing outside the house, but Alex was same as he was 9 years ago.

• Eyeballs

Writing Prompt on Eyeballs- Rebecca had a hobby of collecting weird stuff and his favorite was marbles which looked like real human eyeballs.

• Possessed

Writing Prompt on Possessed- The priest warned the family not to go into the upstairs room until he does the rituals as it is possessed by an evil spirit.

 

• Cursed

Writing Prompt on Cursed- No one was ready to buy the lavish but haunted house in the town, even at a low price as people say the house was cursed and no one survived more than a year in there. 

• Bizarre

Writing Prompt on Bizarre- The bizarre-looking painting in Joe’s home was always felt like staring at me.

• Ghastly

Writing Prompt on Ghostly- Adam got frightened when his pet dog suddenly started looking at an empty space in a ghastly way. 

• Strange

Writing Prompt on Strange- Nobody knew about the strange voices coming from the woods.

• Haunt

Writing Prompt on Haunt- Every night the picture of the person who died in the road accident haunts Eric as he had left without helping him. 

• Tortured

Writing Prompt on Tortured- The screaming and sobbing voices of the slaves who were tortured in the castle yet heard by the guards sometimes at night. 

• Superstition

Writing Prompt on superstition– Miley always followed the superstition of staying away from black cats as she says it brings bad omen. 

• Thrilling

Writing Prompt on Thrilling- Justin found it so thrilling to drive the car alone on the abandoned road until he got hit by the strange vehicle which got vanished in the woods.

• Whisper

Writing Prompt on Whisper- The priest advised the Harper family that whenever they will hear the whisper, they had to chant the god’s name without looking back.

 

Plot Twist: But one of the family member turned back.

 

• Shadow

Writing Prompt on Shadow- Every staff of the hotel was scared to see a shadow roaming in the castle.

• Unholy

Writing Prompt on Unholy- The presence of something unholy scared every member of the camp trip.

• Chilling

Writing Prompt on Chilling- The atmosphere in the farmhouse was very ghostly and chilling.

• Fatal

Writing Prompt on Fatal– The joyful dare of the teenagers to visit the abandoned place outside the town soon got changed into a fatal night.

• Menacing

Writing Prompt on Menacing- Rob suddenly started shouting in a scary, menacing voice.

• Freaked out

Writing Prompt on Freaked out- Bobby freaked out when suddenly his T.V got started itself and started playing the favorite song of his passed away friend.

• Moonlight

Writing Prompt on Moonlight- In the moonlight, the demons were more powerful, so everyone decided to wait for the next day to face them.

• Staring

Writing Prompt on Staring- An old lady was kept on staring Adam in the subway, but when he told this to his girlfriend, he got shocked when she said there was no old lady there.

• Calamity

Writing Prompt on Calamity- The priest did some rituals in the house to avert the calamity.

• Agony

Writing Prompt on Agony- Eventually, the agony of Peter ended with his death. 

 

• RIP

Writing Prompt on RIP- Everyone in the Smith family got scared to see the RIP sign written everywhere in the room.

• Skull

Writing Prompt on skull–When digging the ground for gardening Eliana got shocked when she found a skull.

• Spell

Writing Prompt on spell– When Windy found an old book of spells in his grandpa’s basement, she thought to return it or tell his grandpa about the book but soon she changed her mind and brought it home secretly.

• Ash

Writing Prompt on Ash- When cleaning the room Julia got shocked to see ashes under his bed.

 

• Wicked

Writing Prompt on Wicked- The wicked spirit was only targeting the girls in the family.

• Midnight

Writing Prompt on Midnight- No one knew who was playing the piano at midnight when every family member was sleeping in their room.

• Vanish

Writing Prompt on Vanish- No one believed Rick’s words until they all saw the strange woman vanishing into the woods as soon as they started following her.

Do Read: Best FREE Writing Apps for Writers

Want to learn how to narrate a story in writing then do read How to Narrate a Story Step by Step or want to make some money writing than do read How to Win $50 Writing Short Stories?

About the Author-

Neel Rana is a successful short story book author, flash fiction writer, literary enthusiast, entrepreneur and the founder of Pandora Post. He holds a degree in BA Honours in English Literature and has been writing since 2017. You can read more about him here