The most frightening element is their appearance. The sight of a skeleton with its empty eye sockets and exposed bones is very creepy. It gives a sense of death and the unknown.
One scary skeleton story is about a haunted cemetery. At midnight, the skeletons in the graves would rise. Their bony hands would reach out as they made eerie clicking sounds while moving towards the living. People who wandered near the cemetery at that time often reported seeing a faint glow of the skeletons' eye sockets.
There was an old, haunted house where spooky scary skeletons were said to reside. A group of adventurous kids decided to explore it one night. As they entered, they heard the eerie sound of bones clicking. Suddenly, a skeleton dropped from the ceiling. The kids ran in panic, but later they realized it was just a prank set up by an old caretaker who used fake skeletons to keep people away.
Well, one reason could be that skeletons represent death and the unknown, which are often elements that make stories scary. Also, their bony appearance is visually creepy and easily evokes a sense of fear.
One common element is the rattling of bones. The sound of bones clinking together creates an immediate sense of unease. Another is their appearance in dark and spooky places like cemeteries or old castles. And often, they are associated with the dead coming back to life, which is a very spooky concept.
Often, the unknown makes a story truly scary. For example, in many of these stories, there are unexplained noises or movements. When you don't know what's causing something, it scares you more. Like in a haunted house story, if you just hear a creaking sound but don't see what's making it, your mind starts to imagine all sorts of terrifying things.
Sure, scary stories have the potential to be very scary. They play on common fears, use dark settings, and build tension to create a spooky atmosphere that can spook most people.
The unknown. When there are things that are not fully explained or shown, it scares people. For example, in a haunted house story, if you just hear strange noises but don't see the source clearly, it creates a sense of fear. You start imagining all sorts of terrifying things.
What makes a scary story truly scary is the element of the unknown. When there are things that are left to the imagination, it scares people more. For example, in a story where there's a strange noise in the attic but you don't know what's causing it. It could be anything, and that uncertainty is terrifying.
The scariness also comes from the fact that many of these stories have elements that could potentially be real or seem real. Like in 'Slenderman', the idea of a mysterious figure lurking in the forest is a primal fear that many people have. And the way the stories build up tension and suspense makes them quite scary.