A mom who was trying to capture a sweet video of her two toddlers playing together ended up capturing something altogether more unsettling on camera.
It is not uncommon for parents to share cute clips and pictures of their children on social media. In 2021, a survey of just over 600 parents conducted by Security.org found 77 percent had shared stories, videos or images of their children on social media.
Few, if any, are likely to compare to the heart-stopping clip that Emma Snell, from Dayton, Ohio, captured of her twin 1-year-old girls, Evelyn and Elsie, playing around in the house.
Snell told Newsweek the video started out being focused on “just the babies being cute.” She said: “It is easier than taking pictures when they don’t stop moving.” What happened next, however, left Snell stunned.
As the footage, which was shared to TikTok under the handle @emmarie1215, shows, Snell was initially filming Evelyn noodling around their front room. Then, out of nowhere, Elsie appears; except, as the video shows, she is looking decidedly different, and quite Goblin-like, in fact.
The sudden appearance of Elsie, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the character of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings movies, causes Snell to let out an audible gasp. “My soul left my body for a second,” her caption accompanying the video reads.
emmarie1215
Though it was understandably terrifying in that moment, there is, of course, an entirely logical explanation for what happened: Snell had unwittingly filmed the video on Snapchat, and a filter had been left on.
“I must have accidentally scrolled over to it when I sat my phone down for a second, and just never noticed until I was recording,” Snell said. “I use Snapchat for the flash. They love it, and it keeps their attention.”
The video has been watched over 40.6 million times on TikTok, with those viewing the clip left similarly unnerved at what they saw. “OMG [oh my God] I jumped,” one user wrote. “Girl you scared everybody on TikTok,” another posted, with a third writing: “I almost threw my phone.”
Plenty spotted the obvious Gollum comparisons, and quoted the movies. “My precious,” one said. “Give him the ring,” another added. Many also found the entire thing quite hilarious. “I died laughing at this over and over,” a third commented. “I have been sitting here cracking up for the last 20 minutes.”
Snell’s reaction was a bit of both. “It shocked me for a second, but then I found it pretty funny.” Though it might have resulted in the biggest jump scare of her life, Snell said she has no plans to stop using Snapchat; she’s just going to be a little more careful when it comes to checking whether she has left a filter on.
