- “From goulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night
Good Lord, deliver us!” - An old Cornish Prayer
Monsters are the manifestations of our greatest fears; they are the darkest thoughts and collective terrors of humankind. Throughout our history certain themes appear time and time again, making these nightmarish creatures some of the scariest monsters known throughout the world.
No sparkles, no angst, no soul. Now that's a proper vampire.Though the modern day version of the vampire myth seem to speak more of teen angst and sex than soul twisting horror, tales of bloodsucking beasties and fanged demons reach back into our deepest, darkest past.
The modern vampire tradition came to us out of the early 18th century South-eastern Europe, where vampires were considered to be the revenants of suicides, witches, evil doers and of course, the innocent victims of vampire snackage. In some areas it was common for graves to be exhumed to ensure that the body was indeed at rest and had not been wandering around treating the local populace like the historical version of a fast food drive-through.
Vampire descriptions vary, though most described the beings as being undead, bloated and dark with the blood of their victims. If that wasn’t nasty enough, they could often be picked out of a lineup by the fact they had blood seeping from the mouth and nose and were dressed in the tattered remains of the shroud they were buried in.
Not the sort of fellow you take home to meet the parentsOgres are huge, brutish monsters that are somewhat humanoid in appearance. They are cruel natured and like several others on this list, tasty people bits is at the top of their preferred menu. By the 1600’s Charles Perrault’s fairy tales had brought the name and the modern idea of the ogre into being with tales such as Sleeping Beauty; though the belief in these vicious brutes had already been around for centuries.
They are slow witted creatures that take great joy in inflicting suffering on their victims, and in some cultures have much in common with myths of giants of the “grind his bones to make my bread” variety. They are the brutes and bullies of the monster world, the one most likely to shake down the other monsters for lunch money at recess.
Lycanthropy: The curse that means you have the sudden urge to chase cars and bite the postmanWerewolves are Therianthropes, humans with the ability to shape shift into the form of an animal, in this case a wolf. The idea of shape shifters is as old as the idea of vampires, and in fact the two conditions are sometimes linked. They are very different situations however, as werewolves are still living beings, usually believed to have invoked spirits or Satan in one of a wide variety of rituals designed to transform man’s inner beast into a snarling lap dog of the devil, complete with fangs and fur.
If you suspect your neighbour invoked evil spirits/drank water out of the footprint of a wolf/fell asleep outdoors with the full moon shining down in his face and is now transforming into a canine and wreaking havoc on your village? No worries, you can just use silver…or not. It turns out that idea of silver killing werewolves is a new addition to the legend, appeared only after 1935. Instead, try keeping rye or mistletoe on your person and building your house in the shadow of a mountain ash tree. As the name suggests, wolfsbane is also reported to keep these carnivorous critters at bay. According to the Danes, scolding a werewolf firmly will cure them, and a Sicilian belief of Arabic origin claims that nothing will do but driving nails through the lycanthrope’s hands…er…paws.
Artist's rendition of a goat's worst nightmareMuch newer to the monster scene is the Chupacabra, which translated from Spanish literally means “goat sucker.” The first attacks by this creature were reported in Puerto Rico in 1995, and over the past 19 years reports of sightings and incidents have spread to Mexico, the United States, and many other South American countries. It commonly kills and drains the blood from livestock via one or two puncture holes, and has been cited as killing everything from sheep to turkeys.
Though witness descriptions vary, the livestock assassin is commonly reported as being 3-4 feet high and moves by hopping, much like a kangaroo. They are described as being vaguely reptilian, with leathery greenish grey skin or scales and a line of quills or or spines that run down their spine. Red glowing eyes, fangs, forked tongue and a panther-like face make this monstrosity so ugly I doubt even its mother loved it much, especially given the fact that many reported it to be accompanied by a sulfuric stench that left them nauseous.
Bogeymen: A really good reason to be afraid of the dark.There are countless variations of this childhood terror, with nearly every culture in the world having some sort of monster who torments and terrifies our children; especially those who misbehave. They are the phantasmal manifestation of all our childhood fears, swirled together into one unholy mess of a monster.
Its appearance varies from culture to culture, and even from region to region within the same country. They can appear as anything from a green fog to a fiendish creature with wicked claws and a terrifying visage. Part nightmare and part punishment, it dwells under children’s beds or in their closets, and in many cultures travels the countryside looking for ill behaved children to punish or kidnap. In Croatia she is a horned old lady that steals naughty children through holes in their ceilings and takes them off to her cave to eat them, in Egypt it is a burned and crippled shell of a man who was burned as a child when he disobeyed his parents and takes away other naughty children to cook over his fire while they are still alive. They are the dreaded closet monster who only comes out when our parents closed our bedroom door and shut off the hallway light, and the reason many a child doesn’t let an arm or leg hang out over the edge of their bed. They are the most documented and most commonly reported monster to ever not exist.
Gluttony has never looked so terrifyingThe next charming candidate on the list is the Wendigo, a cannibalistic super-ghost feared by the members of the Algonquian tribes of North America, including the Cree, Ojibwa and the Naskapi. They represent the cruelest elements of winter: Freezing cold, starvation and darkness. They appear as gaunt creatures of great height, but that’s where the resemblance to supermodels comes to an end. Their skin is grey and desiccated, stretched out over bones that in some places push right through their skin. Their lips are tattered and bloody with the remains of their feasts and they stink of corruption and death. In their unending quest for food they are literal avatars of greed and gluttony, never satisfied and eternally hungry. In some myths they gain in size with every meal, growing to gigantic proportions while never easing their hunger.
Though supernatural, the tribes believed that Wendigo’s were once human, transformed though acts of greed or avarice, or because they violated taboos and consumed the flesh of another human being. Innocent people could also be possessed by these food obsessed phantoms, suddenly growing a yen to chow down on their friends and family while dropping weight like a starlet before her big audition.
Demonic dating is never a good idea.Succubi are the demonic equivalent of that girl you knew back in high school, the one all the boys claimed spent more time under the bleachers than a wad of chewing gum. Incubi are their male counterparts, and together they are a demonic tag team of sex and reproduction that will haunt your nightmares for days.
I know what you’re thinking, “What could possibly be scary about a sex demon? That’s not a nightmare, that’s a dream come true!” Well no, not really. Modern myths have revamped the image of these malevolent mates, but historically they were as dangerous as they were ugly. Descriptions go back as far Sumerian times and continue up to the present era. The victims of these nocturnal attacks were seduced in their dreams and awake to find themselves in the embrace of a demonic creature and not the attractive subject of their dreams, much like the folks who take someone home at bar close only to regret it in the light of day.
In some myths the demons drain the live force from their victims, continuing their assaults until their mortal partners are exhausted or even dead. In others the pair works together, the Succubus seduces men and gathers up their semen, the Incubus use this semen to impregnate their victims in turn. These children were called Cambions, and despite having human parents were thought to be supernatural beings in their own right.
Brraaaaiiiiins... No? No, not the brain slurping undead creatures that invariably make their way to the local mall in every Hollywood movie. I'm talking about the original zombies, the nightmarish flesh puppets trapped between this life and the next one and forced to do the will of their master. The idea of zombies originally came from the Carribean, where followers of the mystic faith of Vodou believe that people can be controlled by sorcerers and made to do their bidding as mindless drones by means of ritual and powerful magic spells. Big business does much the same thing, only they use powdered doughnuts and training videos to achieve the same affect.
The sorcerers are known as bokor, and it is widely believed by those who follow Voodoo that they have the power to enslave the soul and reanimate dead bodies to do their bidding. The modern day version of these undead creatures came out of various reports from Haiti and other areas where Voodoo is practiced, mixed liberally with creative license, and then defined by the 1968 movie “Night of the Living Dead.”
Hags, sucking the life out of the living for over two millenniaWhen we dream we are vulnerable, and many of the monsters we fear come out of the night to attack us while we sleep. The Old Hag or Night Hag is one of these monsters, a cruel and hideous shadow that kneels on her victim’s chests as they sleep, crushing them as she steals their breath and life away. Those who wake up during these attacks claim to be paralyzed, pinned beneath a terrifying weight that drives the breath from their bodies as faint voices and odd sounds ring in their ears. Some claim to see nothing, others see a ugly old women or other creature leering down at them as they struggle to move or cry out.
Like the bogeyman, the Old Hag has many names and faces, though her attacks are always described much the same. In Persian folklore she is named Bakhtak, German folklore call it “Elf Pressure” and in French stories there are mentions of the “Trampling Ogre”. These these attackers are blamed for the sudden deaths of the young and the healthy who die as they sleep in their beds, unfortunate victims who did not manage to elude the Old Hag’s terrible clutches.
And things that go bump in the night
Good Lord, deliver us!” - An old Cornish Prayer
Vampires
The modern vampire tradition came to us out of the early 18th century South-eastern Europe, where vampires were considered to be the revenants of suicides, witches, evil doers and of course, the innocent victims of vampire snackage. In some areas it was common for graves to be exhumed to ensure that the body was indeed at rest and had not been wandering around treating the local populace like the historical version of a fast food drive-through.
Vampire descriptions vary, though most described the beings as being undead, bloated and dark with the blood of their victims. If that wasn’t nasty enough, they could often be picked out of a lineup by the fact they had blood seeping from the mouth and nose and were dressed in the tattered remains of the shroud they were buried in.
Ogres
They are slow witted creatures that take great joy in inflicting suffering on their victims, and in some cultures have much in common with myths of giants of the “grind his bones to make my bread” variety. They are the brutes and bullies of the monster world, the one most likely to shake down the other monsters for lunch money at recess.
Lycanthropes (Werewolves)
If you suspect your neighbour invoked evil spirits/drank water out of the footprint of a wolf/fell asleep outdoors with the full moon shining down in his face and is now transforming into a canine and wreaking havoc on your village? No worries, you can just use silver…or not. It turns out that idea of silver killing werewolves is a new addition to the legend, appeared only after 1935. Instead, try keeping rye or mistletoe on your person and building your house in the shadow of a mountain ash tree. As the name suggests, wolfsbane is also reported to keep these carnivorous critters at bay. According to the Danes, scolding a werewolf firmly will cure them, and a Sicilian belief of Arabic origin claims that nothing will do but driving nails through the lycanthrope’s hands…er…paws.
The Chupacabra
Though witness descriptions vary, the livestock assassin is commonly reported as being 3-4 feet high and moves by hopping, much like a kangaroo. They are described as being vaguely reptilian, with leathery greenish grey skin or scales and a line of quills or or spines that run down their spine. Red glowing eyes, fangs, forked tongue and a panther-like face make this monstrosity so ugly I doubt even its mother loved it much, especially given the fact that many reported it to be accompanied by a sulfuric stench that left them nauseous.
The Bogeyman
Its appearance varies from culture to culture, and even from region to region within the same country. They can appear as anything from a green fog to a fiendish creature with wicked claws and a terrifying visage. Part nightmare and part punishment, it dwells under children’s beds or in their closets, and in many cultures travels the countryside looking for ill behaved children to punish or kidnap. In Croatia she is a horned old lady that steals naughty children through holes in their ceilings and takes them off to her cave to eat them, in Egypt it is a burned and crippled shell of a man who was burned as a child when he disobeyed his parents and takes away other naughty children to cook over his fire while they are still alive. They are the dreaded closet monster who only comes out when our parents closed our bedroom door and shut off the hallway light, and the reason many a child doesn’t let an arm or leg hang out over the edge of their bed. They are the most documented and most commonly reported monster to ever not exist.
Wendigos
Though supernatural, the tribes believed that Wendigo’s were once human, transformed though acts of greed or avarice, or because they violated taboos and consumed the flesh of another human being. Innocent people could also be possessed by these food obsessed phantoms, suddenly growing a yen to chow down on their friends and family while dropping weight like a starlet before her big audition.
Succubus/Incubus
I know what you’re thinking, “What could possibly be scary about a sex demon? That’s not a nightmare, that’s a dream come true!” Well no, not really. Modern myths have revamped the image of these malevolent mates, but historically they were as dangerous as they were ugly. Descriptions go back as far Sumerian times and continue up to the present era. The victims of these nocturnal attacks were seduced in their dreams and awake to find themselves in the embrace of a demonic creature and not the attractive subject of their dreams, much like the folks who take someone home at bar close only to regret it in the light of day.
In some myths the demons drain the live force from their victims, continuing their assaults until their mortal partners are exhausted or even dead. In others the pair works together, the Succubus seduces men and gathers up their semen, the Incubus use this semen to impregnate their victims in turn. These children were called Cambions, and despite having human parents were thought to be supernatural beings in their own right.
Zombies
The sorcerers are known as bokor, and it is widely believed by those who follow Voodoo that they have the power to enslave the soul and reanimate dead bodies to do their bidding. The modern day version of these undead creatures came out of various reports from Haiti and other areas where Voodoo is practiced, mixed liberally with creative license, and then defined by the 1968 movie “Night of the Living Dead.”
The Old Hag
Like the bogeyman, the Old Hag has many names and faces, though her attacks are always described much the same. In Persian folklore she is named Bakhtak, German folklore call it “Elf Pressure” and in French stories there are mentions of the “Trampling Ogre”. These these attackers are blamed for the sudden deaths of the young and the healthy who die as they sleep in their beds, unfortunate victims who did not manage to elude the Old Hag’s terrible clutches.
