Ted the Caver

"Ted the Caver" is a short horror story by Ted Hegemann, self-published on an Angelfire website in 2001. It is presented as the online diary of a man who excavates an unexplored cave with his friends. As he unearths the passage further, the entries become increasingly unsettling. The story was widely shared on the early internet, where message boards constantly debated its authenticity. Some users thought it was true by virtue of the many images and technical details, to the point that the cave in the story was able to be identified. After several years, the author revealed that "Ted the Caver" was based on his real caving experiences but he had added numerous creative embellishments. An early internet horror story, "Ted the Caver" is sometimes considered the first creepypasta; the story also popularized several of the subgenre's tropes. An independent film titled Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver (2013) loosely adapted the story. Another full length independent film was uploaded in chapters to YouTube by the channel Alex Archives that adapts the story nearly beat for beat.