About

The Hatman, sometimes called The Hat Man or The Darkman, is a fictitious and dark character commonly associated with visions seen during sleep paralysis, schizophrenic hallucinations or by DPH and deliriant abusers. The creepy humanoid is commonly theorized to be part of a cohort of spirits known as shadow people. The earliest mentions of the Hat Man on the internet include blog posts, YouTube videos and 4chan discussions dating back to the late 2000s and spreading in the following decades.

Origin

On June 1st, 2008, the WordPress blog "The Hat Man Project" went live, documenting various stories and firsthand accounts of people who have encountered the shadow person known as the Hat Man. According to the blog's landing page, the project was started by a man named Timothy Brown who began to collect stories about the mysterious figure in 2001.^[1] As of October 2022, the blog has continued to post updated stories and accounts of Hat Man sightings throughout the years.

The earliest accessible post^[2] on the blog was made on October 30th, 2009 (seen below, left). The earliest known article^[3] posted to the blog was one about shadow people,^[14] a cohort of spirits or demonic figures many believe the Hat Man to be part of (seen below, right).

Spread

Shadow Person / Demonic Apparition Theory

The character continued to be mentioned in sporadic Reddit posts,^{[5] [6] [7]} as well as various YouTube videos between the years 2009 and 2014. ^{[4] [8]} A video game called The Hat Man: Shadow Ward was notably released on Steam^[9] on September 18th, 2014.

On November 25th, 2016, users on 4chan's /x/^[18] board dedicated to discussions of the paranormal posted about a shadowy figure described as the "darkman," "man in the hat" or simply "the Hat Man." The posts contained an image named "hatman.jpg" (seen below, left) and a story about spotting "the Hatman" (seen below, right).

The figure was described as an apparition, a ghost, and a sleep paralysis demon by various people in the November 25th 4chan thread. One anonymous user notably described the Hat Man as a figure he saw when he used to abuse the over-the-counter antihistamine, Benadryl (seen below).

On March 15th, 2019, the YouTube^[10] channel Quartz posted a mini-documentary about the Hat Man, gathering over 400,000 views in three years (seen below).

Deliriant Abuse and Mental Illness Theory

Shadow people and "the Hat Man" specifically received several mentions on the subreddit /r/DPH between the years 2019 and 2022.^[11][12][13] This has led to theories about the Hatman being someone you see on high dosages of specific drugs like Benadryl.

For example, on November 24th, 2021, Twitter^[15] user @bootleghinata posted a screenshot of a discussion revolving around Benadryl abuse and the Hat Man, gathering over 300,000 likes in nearly a year (seen below, left). The tweet received various replies with people relaying personal accounts of seeing the Hat Man, including one from user @AguaDulceSurvvr,^[16] who received over 3,000 likes in one year (seen below, right).

On January 19th, 2022, Twitter^[17] user @LuhChance posted a tweet about the Hat Man, gathering over 200,000 likes in nearly 10 months (seen below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References