It's definitely creepier when it's real! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the best documentary films that cover stories, legends, and concepts involving that which science cannot fully explain.
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00:00 he is trying to contact aliens. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks
00:07 for the best documentary films that cover stories, legends, and concepts involving that which science
00:13 cannot fully explain. We will not be including any docuseries because that will have its own list
00:18 another day. He doesn't have a face, his skin is white. Number 10, Hunt for the Skinwalker.
00:26 Things that you would think the government would find too far out. Will any of the fingers be
00:31 pointing toward Skinwalker Ranch? Names don't get much creepier than Skinwalker. Said creature is
00:37 part of Navajo culture and it's said to be a witch that can possess people and animals.
00:42 Unfortunately, not much is known about the lore outside of the Navajo culture as they are very
00:47 secretive and protective of the stories. Or you could compare it to the uh the imp that you hear
00:53 werewolves like an individual that turns into a animal type being. Most of them are very reluctant
01:00 to talk about it. In the 2018 documentary Hunt for the Skinwalker, director Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer
01:06 Corbell, well, hunts for the Skinwalker. To do so he uncovers a secret to Skinwalker Ranch,
01:11 a large area of Utah that is said to be a paranormal hot spot. As is often the case with
01:16 these types of documentaries, we don't get many answers but the journey sure is fun. This is a
01:22 hunt. A hunt for answers to unformed questions. A hunt for the unknown. And the answers have been
01:30 hiding at a ranch at the center of it all. Number nine, The House in Between. It was a patch of
01:36 tunnel daylight from the ceiling to the floor and it was daylight in this tube of light and it was
01:43 pitch black in the rest of the room. Let's just say right off the bat The House in Between is an
01:48 awesome title for a horror movie. Directed by Steve Gonsalves and Kendall Welton, The House
01:53 in Between tells the creepy story of a regular unassuming house that is supposedly haunted by
01:58 paranormal entities. The film is sort of a cross between ghost hunting shows and a real life
02:03 paranormal activity. Things that have moved, lights that have turned off, and something different than
02:13 just a paranormal investigation. Investigators comb through the place with all their fancy gadgets
02:17 and the static cameras that are placed strategically around the house give off vibes of the famous
02:22 ghost movie. As its own tagline suggests, the documentary is scary because it's real. I think
02:28 the electrical is fine. There's nothing wrong with it. I think you're looking at something else.
02:34 Number eight, Killer Legends. One of the interesting appearances of The Hook was in
02:39 November 1960 when it actually appeared in the Dear Abby column and it's something that a lot
02:44 of people would have read. The Hook, The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs, Killer Clowns, People
02:49 Poisoning Halloween Candy. These are urban legends that everyone knows and they are explored in the
02:54 2014 documentary Killer Legends. The film was directed by Joshua Zeman and this won't be the
02:59 last time that you hear his name. Killer Legends sees Zeman and Rachel Mills investigating the four
03:04 famous stories and trying to find the truth behind them. That is, if there is any truth at all.
03:10 For Rachel and me, this is an attempt to uncover the source of our nightmares as we pull back the
03:16 curtains on what it is we all fear. Are they purely fabricated? Are they stories with kernels
03:21 of history? Are they based on real events? These are questions that the atmospheric film hopes to
03:26 answer and if they enticed you in any way, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Lost in time when
03:32 a section of the park was turned into housing, this was one mystery we were determined to solve.
03:38 Number 7. Ghosts on the Underground. I asked him if he'd like me to go and have a look.
03:43 He said he would as he'd seen somebody wearing white overalls standing in the entrance to the
03:49 eastbound tunnel. There are a bajillion ghost documentaries about haunted houses, but what
03:54 about haunted subways? Stay with us, it's not as silly as it sounds. Ghosts on the Underground
03:59 explores the fascinating history of the London Underground, the city's primary transit system
04:03 that began operating in the 1860s. The documentary is full of your usual ghost happenings with
04:09 witnesses sharing creepy stories and pieces of supposed evidence. I know that I did see this
04:13 image of a woman and all I could do was just sit and look. It's a little unnerving. To this day,
04:18 I can't forget it. What's most interesting about the doc is its sense of history. It goes into
04:24 great depth exploring the life of the London Underground and its dark association with
04:28 ancient crypts and plague pits. London is an old city with a ton of history and Ghosts on
04:33 the Underground analyzes it in a unique and ultimately creepy way. He checked over 100 cameras
04:40 and there was no one to be seen. Number 6. Cropsey. Later as teenagers, we assumed Cropsey
04:46 was just an urban legend. A cautionary tale used to keep us out of those buildings and to stop us
04:52 from doing all those things the teenagers like to do. Remember how we said we'd return to Joshua
04:57 Zeman? Well, here he is again. Co-directed with Barbara Brancaccio, Cropsey is perhaps Zeman's
05:02 most famous film and it shares a common theme with killer legends. Like it, Cropsey examines
05:08 the history of an urban legend. In this case, New York City's Cropsey. Don't go behind the
05:13 Sherwood Bunks. Cropsey's out there. Zeman and Brancaccio argue that the legend stemmed from
05:19 old kidnappings perpetrated by a Staten Island man named Andre Rand. Rand is currently incarcerated
05:25 for two kidnappings, although he is suspected of many more. Cropsey is a chilling documentary
05:31 that explores the Rand case, how it may have shaped the legend of Cropsey, and why we often
05:35 have a penchant for shaping dark history into folklore. As kids, we never thought we'd learn
05:40 the real story behind Cropsey. Instead, Rand was sent to prison and the story has just faded away.
05:47 Number 5. The Mothman Legacy. You know, Main Street used to be very hustling and bustling
05:54 and after the bridge fell in the 60s, that kind of broke off that connection. Ever heard of the
06:00 Mothman? Of course you have. While the legend has a very specific time and place, 1960s point
06:06 pleasant, the legend has spread far beyond the mid-century borders of West Virginia and that's
06:11 what The Mothman Legacy explores. I think it just lends to the idea that whatever Mothman was,
06:18 it is kind of an archetype. Directed by Seth Breedlove, who is known for his documentaries
06:22 on cryptids, The Mothman Legacy explores the, um, legacy of Mothman and how sightings have
06:28 persisted throughout Appalachia. It's a must-watch film for anyone interested in this specific story
06:34 or for anyone who has a vague interest in the paranormal art of cryptozoology. I thought maybe
06:40 it was an owl or something, but it just kept getting closer and closer and louder and louder.
06:47 Number 4. Aerial Phenomenon. We asked them to draw pictures of what they saw on Friday and
06:53 after looking at those, I definitely feel that they did see something. You can probably guess
06:58 what this documentary is about. While yes, it is about UFOs, the title does not refer to general
07:03 aerial phenomenon. Rather, it's about the aerial school in Zimbabwe. Back in September of 1994,
07:10 dozens of children reported seeing a UFO land in a yard near the school. The children had seen
07:15 a UFO landing and these funny men in body-cleaning suits, black suits, weird. Black creatures then
07:24 emerged from the craft and spoke telepathically with the children before departing. Aerial
07:29 Phenomenon tells this story through a few specific people, including a disgraced Harvard psychiatrist
07:35 and a now-grown student who returns to the school. It's a fantastical story told with humanity and
07:40 tenderness, sort of like a Spielberg movie brought to life. So would you want to talk about it to
07:45 friends or other people you meet in the future when you get older? Or would you want to just
07:48 forget about it? No, I don't want to forget about it. I want to keep it in because I know that it's
07:51 true and I want to talk to other people about it. Number three, beware the Slender Man. Police say
07:57 the suspects were inspired by a character on a website called Creepypasta, a site filled with
08:02 scary stories. Most folklore dates back centuries, so watching a new story form is fascinating. The
08:08 folklore in question is that of the Slender Man, a large white humanoid figure created on the
08:13 Something Awful forum. Slender Man proved an incredibly successful creepypasta and later
08:18 became the subject of some popular video games. Slender Man is the modern-day boogeyman.
08:25 Because it's faceless, because it's quiet, because it doesn't speak words,
08:32 it's open to a lot of interpretation. Unfortunately, this story led to a tragic
08:37 stabbing in 2014, which saw two girls harming another in order to appease the fictional monster.
08:43 Luckily, the victims survived. HBO's Beware the Slender Man details this tragic story and examines
08:48 how both folklore and internet fun can often have very real and very dangerous consequences.
08:54 Number two, John was trying to contact aliens. And I'll start it up.
09:02 And we'll start generating. Sometimes paranormal documentaries reveal compelling things about the
09:12 human condition. This is certainly the case with Netflix's John was trying to contact aliens. The
09:18 John in question is John Shepard, a man who spent three decades broadcasting music into space in the
09:23 hopes of making contact with extraterrestrial life forms. I started building the electronic
09:29 equipment to make contact with whatever might be out there beyond the earth. Usually, these types
09:35 of stories present the protagonist as aloof and obsessive, but this doc proves quite the opposite.
09:41 It is very tender in his depiction of Shepard, his motives and his emotional journey. Running a
09:45 very swift 16 minutes, there is no excuse for skipping this one, especially if you're a fan
09:51 of aliens and how they shape our earthly culture. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our
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10:11 notified for occasional videos or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into
10:16 your settings and switch on notifications. Number one, Demon House. Then I'm suddenly in front of
10:24 a door and I can't control my body and the door opens and a 12 foot tall goat figure is standing
10:30 there. If you enjoy the paranormal, then you certainly know Zach Bagans, arguably the most
10:35 famous ghost hunting show of all time. Ghost Adventures has aired hundreds of episodes
10:40 throughout the years and has made Bagans a household name in the paranormal community.
10:44 And if you like Ghost Adventures, then you'll very likely enjoy Demon House.
10:48 In regards to that matter, it's sometimes even thinking about it again to kind of just throw me
10:54 back into a series where I don't want to go back to. Basically a two hour episode of the show,
10:59 Demon House sees Bagans and his crew investigating a famous house in Gary,
11:03 Indiana that is said to be haunted. Bagans is a master of the paranormal craft and watching him
11:08 work is always entertaining. Add in some genuinely creepy and convincing evidence and you have
11:14 yourself a memorable documentary. What noteworthy paranormal docs did we somehow miss? Tell us in
11:26 the comments below. Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
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