“Nothing Makes Me Sadder Than a Tiny Coffin” — Abandoned Funeral Home Stuck in Time Goes Viral

TikToker The Forgotten Places (@theforgottenplaces) has an appropriate account name, as it's filled with videos of abandoned, liminal spaces or real-life backrooms. Some are family homes filled with dusted-over antiques of the past. Others are desolate shopping areas that were once thriving centers of commerce and socialization.

In a recent post, the TikTok account went inside an old funeral home that had rusted hearses located outside, along with "thousands of dollars of fluid" on the interior of the building.

"Look at what we found at this abandoned funeral [home]," a text overlay of the video reads. It begins with footage of a rusted, decayed, broken-down hearse resting on some dead leaves on a dirty ground. "There were so many vintage hearses left behind," another on-screen caption read.

After the TikToker showcased the funeral home's exterior, the video then transitioned to the inside of the funeral home, where they walked into a showing room. At the front of this particular area was what looked like a setup for a child's funeral service: a small white casket with red accents was raised on a platform in front of a sequence of chairs.

"Once we found our way in we came across this setup," they wrote before the clip transitions to the camera person strolling through another area of the funeral home. A hanging light fixture dangles as they walk through another showing area.

The walls in this spot are decked with several caskets. "All these expensive coffins going to waste," they write. The area has a tiled floor decked out with an area rug."

The (horror) stakes of their journey were raised once they reached a white door emblazoned with the word "PRIVATE" in red letters and after they headed in, it was clear to see why this room was closed off to visitor's when the funeral home was operational.

Metal gurneys populated the screen where cadavers were placed. "The embalming room where bodies were prepared," another caption reads as a shot of a camera panning over an anatomy poster on a wall and an open briefcase with various metallic tools displayed on a piece of cloth rests on another table.

"All the tools still lay where they sat when it was open," another overlay in the video reads. The cloth that the tools rest on is decorated with images of butterflies and foliage, a stark contrast with the somber visions of decay that surround the long strip of what looks like medical paper.

"A complete time capsule," the video continues, showing another room with a sink surrounded by several other items that appear to have been used by funeral home employees previously.

"Along with thousands of dollars worth of fluids," another caption reads, showing off shelves filled with bottles of different colored liquids, soaps, and presumably chemicals that were used in the presentation/preservation of corpses, including green bottles of Postene Autopsy Chemical.

The camera panned over to show Powertone All Purpose Arterial Fluid, which looks like it is used for embalming bodies.

"I always wonder why there are so many abandoned funeral homes," another overlay in the video reads, as a dirty looking syringe and other metal tools are zoomed in on in the clip.

"With everything left behind," The Forgotten Places TikTok account writes, showing a wooden case of what appears to look like something Dr. Jekyll would carry around — several glass bottles with brownish liquid lay on the red velvet lining of the box.

One of the final shots of the video is of various clothing options — a brown suit in a plastic package rests on a small black refrigerator. There are nails plunged into the wall where numerous dresses displayed on hangers rest that visitors once viewed as potential costumes for their departed loved ones.

The TikToker ends their video with a shot of the viewing room from where the tiny casket lay previously. They pose the question: "Would you explore this place alone?"

Commenters had their own ideas as to why funeral homes ultimately look like they've been abandoned:

But one user on the app seemed more concerned with the state in which the funeral homes were left to their own devices. "Everyone's tryna say why they're abandoned and what typically happens but WHY does it look like they stopped mid work and left?" one person pointed out.