Mom’s sweet video of her children takes a terrifying turn: ‘My soul left my body’

A mother who tried to capture a cute video of her two toddlers playing together ended up catching something more disturbing 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 by Security.org found that 77 percent had shared stories, videos or photos of their children on social media.

Few, if any, are likely to compare to the cardiac arrest Emma Snell of Dayton, Ohio, captured from her twin 1-year-old girls, Evelyn and Elsie, playing around the house.

Snell said Newsweek the video started by focusing on “just babies are cute.” She said, “It’s easier than taking pictures when they don’t stop moving.” What happened next, however, left Snell stunned.

Seam the recordingswhich was shared to TikTok under the handle @emmarie1215, shows that Snell originally filmed Evelyn noodling around in their front room. Then, out of nowhere, Elsie appears; except, as the video shows, she looks completely different, and actually quite pixie-like.

The sudden appearance of Elsie, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the character Gollum from The Lord of the Rings movie, prompts Snell to give an audible gasp. “My soul left my body for a moment,” reads her caption accompanying the video.

While it was understandably terrifying at the time, there is of course a perfectly logical explanation for what happened: Snell had inadvertently filmed the video on Snapchatand a filter had been left on.

“I must have accidentally rolled over to it when I put my phone down for a second and I never noticed until I was shooting,” Snell said. “I use Snapchat for the flash. They love it and it keeps their attention.”

The video has been viewed over 40.6 million times on TikTok, and those who watched the clip were equally unnerved by what they saw. “OMG (oh my God) I jumped,” wrote one user. “Girl you scared everyone on TikTok,” wrote another, while a third wrote: “I almost dropped my phone.”

Many spotted the obvious Gollum comparisons and cited the films. “My precious,” said one. “Give him the ring,” added another. Many also found it’s all pretty funny. “I died laughing at this over and over again,” commented a third. “I’ve been sitting here looking up for the last 20 minutes.”

Snell’s reaction was a bit of both. “It shocked me for a moment, but then I found it quite funny.” Although it could have resulted in the biggest jump scare of her life, Snell said she has no plans to stop using Snapchat; she just wants to be a little more careful when it comes to checking if she’s left a filter on.