Step inside the most terrifying haunted forests in the world, eerie woodlands allegedly home to everything from ghosts to cryptids to UFOs.
Wikimedia CommonsKnown for the decaying children’s toys that hang from its trees, Mexico’s “Island of the Dolls” stands alongside New Jersey’s Pine Barrens and Translyvania’s Hoia-Baciu as one of the scariest haunted forests in the world.
If you’re trapped in a haunted house, at least you have the hope of escaping through a window or door. But if you get lost in a haunted forest, you might be lost there forever. That seemingly inescapable vastness is one reason why haunted forests are especially terrifying — but it’s far from the only one.
Allegedly haunted forests around the world are, despite their striking differences, similar in many key ways. They’re all dense woodlands with a spooky reputation built on unexplained occurrences, local lore, and unusual topography or vegetation. But each place also puts its own unique spin on the idea of a haunted forest.
The Devil’s Tramping Ground, for example, is a tiny square of land in the pine woods of North Carolina, where the devil is believed to, well, “tramp.” Meanwhile, the Pine Barrens of New Jersey stretch out over a million acres and are purportedly home to both a variety of ghosts and a terrifying creature known as the Jersey Devil.
And many of the world’s scariest woods lie outside of the United States. Below, we’ve put together a list of some of the most terrifying haunted forests from around the world. From Epping Forest in England to Mexico’s eerie Island of the Dolls, each is scarier than the next.
Aokigahara: Japan’s Chilling “Suicide Forest” In The Shadow Of Mount Fuji
ajari/Wikimedia CommonsAokigahara forest in Japan has become a magnet for people looking to end their lives.
One of the spookiest things about Japan’s Aokigahara forest is its silence. Its forest floor is made of volcanic rock — created by the eruption of Mount Fuji in 864 C.E. — which absorbs sound. What’s more, the soil contains high levels of iron, which means that cell phones and GPS devices often don’t work.
This creates an atmosphere of eerie quiet. But that’s far from the only reason why Aokigahara is considered to be a haunted forest.
Long ago, Aokigahara was purportedly the site of a gruesome practice known as ubasute. During times when food was scarce, some families purportedly chose to leave elderly or sick relatives in remote places like Aokigahara. Unable to care for them, they left them alone to die.
Since then, ghosts known as yūrei have allegedly been spotted in the forest and are thought to be the tortured spirits of these abandoned people.
However, Aokigahara has developed an even darker reputation in recent years: as a place to die by suicide. In 1960, Tower of Waves by Seichō Matsumoto told the story of a woman who dies by suicide in forest, and in 1993, The Complete Manual of Suicide by Wataru Tsurumi named Aokigahara as one of the best places to die.
Davide Mauro/Wikimedia CommonsA suicide prevention sign in Aokigahara forest that promises to help with debt relief (several people who died by suicide in the forest were driven by despair over job loss or debts).
Ever since, Aokigahara forest has become a destination for people looking to die by suicide. The Japanese government stopped publishing figures after 108 suicides were reported in the forest in 2004, but the forest purportedly continues to draw people looking to end their lives.
This, the lack of sound, and the forest’s unsettling history secure Aokigahara’s place among the world’s most haunted forests.
