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Crime Prevention
There are a lot of different flavours of crime prevention PSAs - some of them are aimed at dissuading people from committing crimes, some are intended to raise awareness of types of crime, and some are information on resources for reporting crime. These can be some of the most disturbing PSAs full stop, since they deal with some very heavy topics, but as a scary-PSA-enjoyer, it means it's ripe for harvesting. From gun crime, to knife crime, to sexual violence, there's a wide variety of horror on display in this category.
The Conference, 2008
The Conference is a PSA from the UK Home Office, aimed at preventing knife crime. It was apparently web-based only, which does make some amount of sense with how graphic the images it shows are - real stab wounds, blood and guts included (literally). It's a fascinating video, with some legitimately good advice and information in it, but I could definitely see it being very shocking and even frightening if it were to pop up unexpectedly for you.
Cartoon, 2002
This PSA has apparently been praised for making its point while not being too graphic. I argue that this is actually plenty graphic - the child might be a cartoon for the majority of the vido, but the father being a real human man is still scare and offputting with the things he's saying and doing. The reveal of the real child at the end, and the silent tagline on top of that, just top it all off as being pretty disturbing.
Can't Look, 1999
The NSPCC definitely have some scary, creepy PSAs. This one is almost entirely implication and audio - but in a way that almost makes it worse. The one that sticks with me is the squeal of the baby in the very first clip. The child alone in the house sends chills through me too - there's something so threatening about the looming door. Very effective, and very unsettling. There's a few different versions too, which I managed to find all compiled together here.
Sunday Lunch, 2006
I still remember how hard this one hit methe first time I saw it. You really don't know what's coming. A domestic scene, a mother setting out dinner fr her kids as they joke and banter - and then she pulls out a gun and shoots her youngest son point-blank in the head. It's graphic, it's sudden. The blood spatter over the walls and table - and the kids - the reactions of everyone else at the table; it's all very visceral and very, very hard-hitting.
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