Candle Cove
This story is part 1 of 3 in the Candle Cove series.
| Written by | Kris Straub |
|---|---|
| Published on Creepypasta.com | June 2009 |
| Length | 1,188 words · about 5 minutes to read |
| Story level | Short |
| Reader rating | 9.0/10 from 6,937 votes |
| Category | Television and Lost Episodes |
It comes most often at night. That niggling memory, gnawing in some corner of your mind like a rodent chewing the corners of the drywall. The memory of some brightly lit cartoon funland, or a world of puppets. A memory of a tv show, you would watch, seated cross legged on the living room floor with the fixed enthusiastic attention only a child can give. Attention that you wish now, you perhaps hadn’t given so freely. For there is something about that show, something about the discordant music, the details of the characters, their motivations and the storylines, the fixed maniacal grins that seems, looking back, to be altogether too sinister to be a children’s show. You try to block the memory out and yet, there in the back of your mind, most often at night, the puppet’s fixed grin, keeps on smiling.
Overview
Candle Cove is a widely known and popular Creepypasta about a fictional television series recollected by a number of posters on a childhood nostalgia forum. As the posters share their recollections the things they collectively remember become more and more sinister with the characters featured clearly being unsuitable for children’s viewing. Notable examples are The Laughingstock the boat that is alive and sports a huge mouth, Horace Horrible a one eyed character with ‘too large teeth’ and most famously, a skeleton character known as ‘The Skintaker’ who wears the flesh of children over his naked bones. Hardly Sesame Street is it?
Candle Cove Creepypasta
NetNostalgia Forum – Television (local)
Skyshale033
Subject: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Does anyone remember this kid’s show? It was called Candle Cove and I must have been 6 or 7. I never found reference to it anywhere so I think it was on a local station around 1971 or 1972. I lived in Ironton at the time. I don’t remember which station, but I do remember it was on at a weird time, like 4:00 PM.
mike_painter65
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
it seems really familiar to me…..i grew up outside of ashland and was 9 yrs old in 72. candle cove…was it about pirates? i remember a pirate marionete at the mouth of a cave talking to a little girl
Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
YES! Okay I’m not crazy! I remember Pirate Percy. I was always kind of scared of him. He looked like he was built from parts of other dolls, real low-budget. His head was an old porcelain baby doll, looked like an antique that didn’t belong on the body. I don’t remember what station this was! I don’t think it was WTSF though.
Jaren_2005
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Sorry to ressurect this old thread but I know exactly what show you mean, Skyshale. I think Candle Cove ran for only a couple months in ‘71, not ‘72. I was 12 and I watched it a few times with my brother. It was channel 58, whatever station that was. My mom would let me switch to it after the news. Let me see what I remember.
It took place in Candle cove, and it was about a little girl who imagined herself to be friends with pirates. The pirate ship was called the Laughingstock, and Pirate Percy wasn’t a very good pirate because he got scared too easily. And there was calliope music constantly playing. Don’t remember the girl’s name. Janice or Jade or something. Think it was Janice.
Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Thank you Jaren!!! Memories flooded back when you mentioned the Laughingstock and channel 58. I remember the bow of the ship was a wooden smiling face, with the lower jaw submerged. It looked like it was swallowing the sea and it had that awful Ed Wynn voice and laugh. I especially remember how jarring it was when they switched from the wooden/plastic model, to the foam puppet version of the head that talked.
mike_painter65
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
ha ha i remember now too. do you remember this part skyshale: “you have…to go…INSIDE.”
Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Ugh mike, I got a chill reading that. Yes I remember. That’s what the ship always told Percy when there was a spooky place he had to go in, like a cave or a dark room where the treasure was. And the camera would push in on Laughingstock’s face with each pause. YOU HAVE… TO GO… INSIDE. With his two eyes askew and that flopping foam jaw and the fishing line that opened and closed it. Ugh. It just looked so cheap and awful.
You guys remember the villain? He had a face that was just a handlebar mustache above really tall, narrow teeth.
kevin_hart
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
i honestly, honestly thought the villain was pirate percy. i was about 5 when this show was on. nightmare fuel.
Jaren_2005
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
That wasn’t the villain, the puppet with the mustache. That was the villain’s sidekick, Horace Horrible. He had a monocle too, but it was on top of the mustache. I used to think that meant he had only one eye.
But yeah, the villain was another marionette. The Skin-Taker. I can’t believe what they let us watch back then.
kevin_hart
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
jesus h. christ, the skin taker. what kind of a kids show were we watching? i seriously could not look at the screen when the skin taker showed up. he just descended out of nowhere on his strings, just a dirty skeleton wearing that brown top hat and cape. and his glass eyes that were too big for his skull. christ almighty.
Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Wasn’t his top hat and cloak all sewn up crazily? Was that supposed to be children’s skin??
mike_painter65
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
yeah i think so. rememer his mouth didn’t open and close, his jaw just slid back and foth. i remember the little girl said “why does your mouth move like that” and the skin-taker didn’t look at the girl but at the camera and said “TO GRIND YOUR SKIN”
Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
I’m so relieved that other people remember this terrible show!
I used to have this awful memory, a bad dream I had where the opening jingle ended, the show faded in from black, and all the characters were there, but the camera was just cutting to each of their faces, and they were just screaming, and the puppets and marionettes were flailing spastically, and just all screaming, screaming. The girl was just moaning and crying like she had been through hours of this. I woke up many times from that nightmare. I used to wet the bed when I had it.
kevin_hart
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
i don’t think that was a dream. i remember that. i remember that was an episode.
Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
No no no, not possible. There was no plot or anything, I mean literally just standing in place crying and screaming for the whole show.
Also read: The Brain’s Genocide
kevin_hart
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
maybe i’m manufacturing the memory because you said that, but i swear to god i remember seeing what you described. they just screamed.
Jaren_2005
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Oh God. Yes. The little girl, Janice, I remember seeing her shake. And the Skin-Taker screaming through his gnashing teeth, his jaw careening so wildly I thought it would come off its wire hinges. I turned it off and it was the last time I watched. I ran to tell my brother and we didn’t have the courage to turn it back on.
mike_painter65
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
i visited my mom today at the nursing home. i asked her about when i was littel in the early 70s, when i was 8 or 9 and if she remebered a kid’s show, candle cove. she said she was suprised i could remember that and i asked why, and she said “because i used to think it was so strange that you said ‘i’m gona go watch candle cove now mom’ and then you would tune the tv to static and juts watch dead air for 30 minutes. you had a big imagination with your little pirate show.”
—
CREDIT: Kris Straub
Source: This story is from Ichor Falls, an absolute must-read site if you dig creepy stories. Seriously, I’m so in love with that website, you all need to go there right this instant, dammit!
More classic Creepypasta stories can be found here:
The Russian Sleep Experiment
Squidward’s Suicide
Ben Drowned
Origin and Development
Unlike most Creepypastas that by their very natures evolved out of the contributions of numerous posters who over time sculpt and shape the narrative into its present form, adding, removing and altering details until a collective version of the story or character is formed, Candle Cove can be traced back to a single author, who initially presented the entire story as finished piece and later released the story commercially as part of a collection of short stories.
The author Kris Straub who is also an illustrator, originally posted the piece to Ichor Falls, a site for horror fiction on March 15th, 2009, he did not approve the later versions and adaptations of his work, but the fiction has mutated into new forms nevertheless
What is interesting about this particular story however is how ‘meta’ it becomes when you consider that the story was inspired by the creepypasta genre as a whole and that on its way to becoming a popular creepypasta itself, it successfully imitated the way that other creepypastas are formed.
Wait, what? I’ll explain.
Candle Cove is written in what is known as an ‘epistolary’ form. This basically means made up from correspondence between different characters, where the main plot is revealed or played out by the interactions between them. Back in the day this usually referred to letters between the characters or extracts from diary entries, think of a horror classic like Dracula, it isn’t written as a third person narrative ‘and then he walked up the creepy old castle’ but is pieced together from letters, telegrams and diary entries, collections of ‘epistles’ therefore- epistlatory.
In a modern update, the epistlatory structure was adopted by Straub to create his story not as a linear story but as if it were an exchange between posters on the NetNostalgia Forum.
Straub, writing all of the contributors framed the story as if several individuals were sharing their own memories of the fictional show and becoming more and more disturbed as they shared less and less child friendly details and reminded each other of elements they had previously forgotten but were vaguely haunted by.
Scholars have noted that the success of Canldecove can be linked to its verisimilitude. For those who don’t know, ‘verisimilitude’ essentially means ‘pretending very well’ or maintaining an appearance or voice.
The fact that Straub is able to successfully convince an unwitting reader that this story is an interaction between different posters all with their own individual voices and characters rather than simply the construction of one man is an example of verisimilitude. It is this verisimilitude and desire to present the piece as if it was a real interaction that led to the story being spread and adopted as a creepypasta without Straub’s approval.
As it was picked up and shared, the verisimilitude of the writing made it possible for readers to suspend their disbelief and to look at the piece as if it genuinely was a collection of posts on a forum. This then led to an evolution of the narrative as others began posting their own (clearly fictional) recollections of the show and the characters, adapting and extending the existing details.
What is interesting is that as the story was then spread onto other forums where it adopted new and unapproved shapes but maintained the verisimilitude, being presented on numerous forums as if it were a real show.
The original story was posted to Creepypasta.com in June of 2009. Within a month it was possible to find youtube videos discussing the show and by the close of the year, 4chan and reddit as well as forums dedicated to horror and tv (such as TVforum.co.uk) featured discussion between posters about the fictional show with some contributors sharing their supposed memories.
Examples of this unsanctioned evolution can be seen in the fact that there now exists a wiki for candle cove (created in 2011) that lists the episodes and describes the content of those episodes for the fictional show. There is even analysis of the novel ‘The Knickerbocker’s Tale’ a short story written in 1767 and upon which the series is supposedly based, which within the wikis is presented as if it actually existed and is the inspiration for a series that also did not exist.
The strange ‘meta’ evolution of the story came full circle when Candle Cove was selected as one of the stories to be used in Syfy’s Channel Zero series, meaning that in the end the fictional show would be developed as part of an actual show, albeit one not aimed at youngsters.
Straub has cited an article on the satirical humour site The Onion as being part of the inspiration for Candle Cove. The article was about a man who still experienced nightmares about a show he watched on public access television as a child. Whilst he is protective of his copyright and ownership of the idea Straub has also acknowledged that the adoption of his work by others and it subsequent morphing and alteration is inevitable and has described the process as flattering, clarifying that this organic group ownership “serves the mythos way more than me being a litigious dick about it”.Well put sir, well put.
Candle Cove: quick facts
- Written by Kris Straub and first published on his site Ichor Falls in 2009.
- Told as a forum thread where adults remember a strange 1970s children’s TV show about pirates.
- Adapted into the first season of the TV series Channel Zero, Channel Zero: Candle Cove (2016).
- Its final twist is one of the most famous endings in creepypasta.
Candle Cove FAQ
Is Candle Cove a real TV show?
No. Candle Cove never aired. It was invented by Kris Straub for his 2009 story, though it is written so convincingly that many readers have searched for it.
Who wrote Candle Cove?
Kris Straub, who first published it on his horror site Ichor Falls in 2009.
Who is the Skin-Taker in Candle Cove?
A skeletal villain the forum users remember from the show, with a cape made of skins. He is the most quoted part of the story.
Is there a Candle Cove TV series?
Yes. It was adapted as Channel Zero: Candle Cove, the first season of the horror anthology series Channel Zero, in 2016.
What should I read after Candle Cove?
Try Squidward’s Suicide, 1999 and BEN Drowned, or take the Candle Cove quiz.
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Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.
I thought it was gorgeous! I loved the format, quite refreshing, and this was a great concept.. childhood memories are so often vague that it was a good idea to tackle them and make them creepy. OMNOMNOM. Delicious!
There’s definitely something about this pasta… can’t quite put my finger on it…
…that was THE BEST EVER creepypasta.
holy s**t.
AMAZING
HOLY FUCK. That was creepy as hell! Awesome pasta right there.
Ahem here’s my creepypasta
THE. NIGHTMARE
Jay was adicted to horror.he went to bed.had a dream he was in a room he looked around the
Room the saw a horrible bieng with a face with no face(or just blood and gore).with a dildo
Saying fuckduckmuckimaretardfuckfuckfuckfuck wanna bite my cock
Holy Stromboli! That is by far a truly terrifying tale! Are you sure it wasn’t Jimmy Savile?
Holy Stromboli! That is by far a truly terrifying tale! Are you sure it wasn’t Jimmy Savile?
Holy Stromboli! That is by far a truly terrifying tale! Are you sure it wasn’t Jimmy Savile?
Not too bad, but not too good :/
So much imagination for children to think of everything like that. It’s quite good and very original. I liked it though what if such a show might have existed?
All hell would break loose.
I’m loving it…finally one of those stories that ain’t litter with I’m watching you and you don tknow it, so many “you’s” even Soulja boy is scared.
That was very creepy. I liked it.
BUT WHO WAS CANDLE COVE!?
… awesome. And really original, too.
Lovely premise with an interesting execution. I enjoyed that one.
It was freaky. Especially since Candle Cove sounds vaguely familiar… Hmmm…
I know!! It seem familiar somewhere in the back of my mind!! now that i look back on it *quiet sobbing in hands* ;-; HALP ME
I was born way after this show aired but I swear I remember it
Okay, so I’m NOT the only one who thinks it’s sounds familiar?!?! Dude I was born in ’93. Like I wasnt even born when everyone claims to have watched it! Yet it sounds so familiar
I know right
This reminds me of a Russian claymation I was told to watch for one of my Russian classes. Didn’t understand it, but at least there wasn’t any skin taker. There where pirates and a doctor of all things.
omg freeeeeaky
It was ok
A tad confusing at parts, but it was ok
it’s a mass mental illness?
Or maybe some negative… Force or creature messing with childrens minds?
Candle Cove is actually a show only childeren can watch for some reason. Most parents played it off as an over-active imagination & didn’t think it was anything else.
No it’s not it’s a;; fictional. There really was never a show.
There was, otherwise how would more than one person remember it?
Of course there was. Don’t you remember the candles? The candles were from the Skin-Taker. That was how he worked: candles around the altar, and they called to you.
ugh, people. i hope you’re a troll, because it’s a story, a fictional story. it’s not true!
Thank you
There was a show.
That’s the idea the author implied in order to scare the readers. But think logically: his mother saw static while numerous children watched the show. Would you believe in the mother’s insanity or insanity of group of people from totally different places with exactly the same hallucination? The answer is kind of obvious.
There’s some speculation that it was some gov operation to see if they could simulate a show at a frequency only children could see – that seems the most likely explanation, but the whole “ogm it wuz GUVERMENTS!” thing is so overused that I sincerely doubt it.
Because they’d TOTALLY air some creepy show with screaming puppets instead of PBS or something…
holy FUCK that was a delicious pasta. really digging the original format of a forum, and i shat a house when they described the screaming episode.
this is what all pastas should strive to be.
Shat a house, eh?
Oh dear god XD
One of the best pastas posted in a long time.
really a nice one.. love the begin, like the end. but it could have been made a bit better by stretching the end for a few lines..
WOW.
That was a good’un…
Fucking loved the ending.
The ending wasn’t as creepy as it was intriguing.
Wasn’t really that creepy.
Nice, though.
Best pasta in a while. Good show, old chap.
GOOD SHOW! JOLLY GOOD SHOW!!!
go away
I lovd the ending
Wasn’t really creepy.
what are you talking about? this was scary you troll
what about the fact the persons mum said she had imagination with the static when it was on and lots of people remember it, also i asked MY mum about it and she said `I REMEMBER THAT SHOW, MY GRANDAD USED TO SAY I WAS WIERD WHEN I TURNED IT TO STATIC AND WATCHED IT.` almost exact words from her
Really?
OMFG o-0 *faint*
Yeah, my mom (born in 63′) told me she remembered the show, but couldn’t remember what it was about or when she watched it.
Changed my life.
._.
I…wut?
Ending was a bit of a let down for me…
OMG, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! AHHHHH!!! *faint*
*cough*
*fart*
I didn’t know muffins could fart?
Whoo I’m tingly now :D
I was curious what the ending would be for this one, since I didn’t really see how it could have a scary… punchline, or whatever.
I didn’t think it was scary but I did find it very interesting
i’m scared now D:
i must say, one of the first creepypastas i’ve read lately that made me so freaked out.
written perfectly.
That’s because Josef K is a borderline genius when it comes to writing compelling micro fiction. Which reminds me: anyone know if he’s still active?
He contacted me to get his links updated a month or two ago, so I assume so.
Unfortunately, going to his site makes my antivirus freak out, so I can’t tell if he’s updated recently. Seems he may have fallen prey to similar issues that we’ve been having here.
Hey, guys! It’s the famous DerpButt!!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That gives me an idea for a pasta…
hey, just out of interest did you write Ickbarr Bigelsteine
I know what you’re thinking, and please do it. That story would be amazing if you did it right.
Josef K wrote this?!
No, Kris Straub did.
Read BEN
Ben is an awesome creepy pasta, I even had some conversations with clever bot, and I said Ben drowned and it said no he was murdered
Yeah. Sometimes the cleverbot just brings BEN up out of nowhere. Like one second your talking about your day and the next second he brings up BEN…
What?? I’ve been trying to start a conversation about Ben with clever bot and it turns into something completely different!!!!
This does not sound creepy at all. Im from finland, and when i was 5 or 6 there was a kids show that had an horrible puppet in it. Type “morso” to google and watch the pictures for a thing with milk glass.
Wholly crap!
…what sort of screwed up show is THAT?
I feel bad for you, friend!
I know. It had an easily scared horse in it and morso would scare the shit out of it.
http://www.aapeli.com/community/user/Stryper-/gallery/view/aasi_ja_morso140499/
Here this is Morso with the other characters
OK Morso… Fireplace… Fireplace… Dead ferrite with its stomach ripped out… Fireplace… When do you get to the creepy puppet?
10 hours later. Oh there it is.
A little creepy i guess?
BUT WHO WAS STATIC?!
It’s not a person. Have you ever turned on your TV to a channel you don’t have and you just see the black and white dots constantly moving with that loud noise that sounded like things being scraped together? That is static, also referred to as white noise.
Have you ever noticed that he is referring to the "WHO WAS PHONE?" post and is probably not a complete idiot
You must be new here :) Welcome!
i believe that’s tv static
that’s tv snow
Eh? What are you all talking about? That’s just when Candle Cove is on. So wait, TVs can have static?
No, this was back in the 70’s. They didn’t have programming on all the time like we do now, so when there was free time in the middle of shows, it’d have nothing. But the signal of the tv would still read, causing the static.
In a nutshell:
“Oh, there’s nothing on next? Okay” *static until 30 minuets ’till an hour later* “Hey look, another show is on!”
Er no it’s because old TV’s had to be tuned manually, with a dial, how one would tune a radio. great story, though.
I love to play in the TV snow, the snowballs make loud noises.
But who was T.V.!!?
NO shit Bro
BUT WHO WAS WHITE NOISE!?
“white noise” is another name for T.V snow/static. it’s not a person; it’s like when you turn the channel and see nothing but black and white dots mashing together with the sound of scraping/crunching.
Sigh…
lol.
In the internet age he probably never seen static.
facepalm
i thought ze screaming episode sounded ze funny no?….. with ze dolls flailing like applesauce no?
Applesauce flails?
It does…?
I do
wut
What XD haha
I thought it was hilarious, seriously, I was thinking of the videos where people make Garrys Mod ragdolls look like they’re on drugs and running around all the time, flailing there arms like crazy
is it me or the likes on this comment is dirty?
BUT WHO WAS THE PERSON WHO SAID “BUT WHO WAS THE STATIC”
That’s right, I just made a freaking reference-ception. Deal with it, I’m a muffin for crying out loud. How else am I supposed to get my kicks?
So we meet again. Do you know who I am?
Do ou know the muffin man the muffin man the muffin man
Do you know the muffin man the muffin man the muffin man
for angel:
…….. aren’t horror storys not for angels?
But who who was the person who said but who was the person that said who was static? BOOM! Double refrence -ception!
BUT WHO WAS TV?!
Is this a joke I don’t get? This is the second time I’ve heard, “But who was —?!”
Read “WHO WAS PHONE?”