--- title: Hellraiser Movie VHS Tape Haunting Old Kent Road London Bus Stop description: Do not open the box canonical: https://time.com/2894671/a-vhs-copy-of-hellraiser-is-mysteriously-haunting-a-london-bus-stop/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-19T17:10:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:10:54.669Z og:title: A VHS Copy Of "Hellraiser" Is Mysteriously Haunting A London Bus Stop og:description: Do not open the box og:url: https://time.com/2894671/a-vhs-copy-of-hellraiser-is-mysteriously-haunting-a-london-bus-stop/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcad6d3d27c764d93/6986985355a8594a5fa81725/143969862.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: 143969862 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A VHS Copy Of "Hellraiser" Is Mysteriously Haunting A London Bus Stop twitter:description: Do not open the box twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcad6d3d27c764d93/6986985355a8594a5fa81725/143969862.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A VHS Copy Of _Hellraiser_ Is Mysteriously Haunting A London Bus Stop > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 19, 2014 5:10 PM UTC  Bus stop at night in London Bus stop at night in London Tim Robberts—Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 19, 2014 5:10 PM UTC Is South London about to be invaded by the Cenobites? Maybe, but the neighborhood is definitely being haunted by a VHS copy of _Hellraiser,_ the 1987 classic Clive Barker horror film. [Back in 2011](https://twitter.com/Feetlip/statuses/121243239046066177), an eagle-eyed commuter noticed that there was a puzzling box (that’s a _Hellraiser_ reference, folks) perched atop a bus stop. When he investigated, it turned out to be a VHS copy of the horror film complete with Pinhead’s terrifying face staring out from it. Three years on, it’s still there. Last year, Tom Wateracre started documenting what he assumed was an amusing oddity worth tweeting about. It became less funny and more creepy when a second copy showed up: It didn’t stop in April, either. In August, another VHS copy of the film showed up: When one copy disappears, another shows up in its place. In October, the phenomenon spread across town: Was it a copy cat or the first hints that Frank Cotton is returning? The world may never know. What we do know is that the VHS copy of _Hellraiser_ is still there (see for yourself on [Google Street View](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.49149,-0.082229,3a,75y,238.04h,85.7t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1smrkVlQmauafVQwc6oX-%5FVQ!2e0?hl=en)) sitting on the bus stop on Old Kent Road just waiting for some curious person to open it, which, if horror movies are to be believed, would probably be a very bad idea. You can read the entire scary _Hellraiser_ Storify here: \[via [Dazed](http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/20352/1/why-are-hellraiser-vhs-cassettes-haunting-london-bus-stops)\] **MORE**: [Behind Creepypasta, the Internet Community That Allegedly Spread a Killer Meme](http://time.com/2818192/creepypasta-copypasta-slender-man/) **MORE**: [Finally, a Dating Site for Ghosts](http://techland.time.com/2013/10/03/finally-a-dating-site-for-ghosts/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2894671/a-vhs-copy-of-hellraiser-is-mysteriously-haunting-a-london-bus-stop/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2894671/a-vhs-copy-of-hellraiser-is-mysteriously-haunting-a-london-bus-stop/"},"headline":"A VHS Copy Of Hellraiser Is Mysteriously Haunting A London Bus Stop","datePublished":"2014-06-19T17:10:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:54.669Z","description":"Do not open the box","url":"https://time.com/2894671/a-vhs-copy-of-hellraiser-is-mysteriously-haunting-a-london-bus-stop/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","viral","london","Pranks"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcad6d3d27c764d93/6986985355a8594a5fa81725/143969862.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcad6d3d27c764d93/6986985355a8594a5fa81725/143969862.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"143969862","caption":"143969862","creditText":"Tim Robberts—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2894671/a-vhs-copy-of-hellraiser-is-mysteriously-haunting-a-london-bus-stop/","name":"A VHS Copy Of Hellraiser Is Mysteriously Haunting A London Bus Stop"}}]}] ```