Scary urban legends. Mystical legends that scare even scientists Mystical legends and myths of ancient times

Admit that you are still shuddered by memories of scary stories from your youth. Every child has heard stories about maniacs, ghosts and alien abductions.

And all these stories are, of course, true, because... Happened to none other than your cousin's girlfriend's friend's friend. Isn't there enough evidence?

10. The Suscon Screamer

Is there anything more creepy than a dead bride? I think no. Stories about these unfortunate people can be found in any country.

Suscon Road is a road in Pennsylvania, where the Railroad Bridge over the Susquehanna River is also located. There are many legends associated with this place. Locals claim that if you come to this place, turn off the engine, put the keys on the roof of the car and wait a little, then you will be able to see in the rearview mirror the so-called “the Suscan Screamer” (from the English Scream - scream; screamer - the one who is screaming).

Most stories boil down to the fact that this is the ghost of a woman who was abandoned right at the altar and who then committed suicide on this bridge. They also say that after jumping from the bridge, she let out a piercing scream.

Another version features a creature with webbed feet, large claws and a huge head. Maybe someone should ask this dead bride what really happened when she sits in the back seat?

9. Lillian Gray

This story begins with a tombstone that sits in the center of a cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. It "belongs" to a woman named Lillian E. Gray, who died in the 1950s at the age of 77. At first glance, this tombstone is no different from the others, until you come across the inscription “Victim of the Beast 666”.

Now this is alarming. What could this mysterious inscription mean? Maybe this is some kind of indictment of the believers of one of the most religious cities in the country? Could she have been sacrificed for a satanic cult? Maybe she herself worshiped the devil? Or was she the victim of a witch hunt? But, all these are just rumors that intrigued residents came up with to explain this.

And as always, there will be someone who will come and ruin everything. The inscription was ordered by a paranoid husband who hated the government and blamed the police for his wife’s death. It's hard to say whether this makes the story any less terrible, but that's how it happened.

8. The Stow Lake Ghost

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California is known for its paranormal stories. If you believe the locals, then it is teeming with spirits, and you risk bumping into one of them while doing yoga. This park might as well be called “Undead Park.” But one ghost story was especially popular. It was published in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 6, 1908. This is the story of the Stow Lake ghost.

The newspaper publication begins with the name Arthur Pidgin. He was driving along the road, slightly exceeding the speed limit. A policeman stopped him. Arthur said that it was not his fault, he had to drive quickly to leave the lake as quickly as possible. He saw the ghost of a woman. She had long blond hair and no shoes on her feet.

Legends say that she was a mother who lost her child, or even killed her, and then committed suicide. Yeah, of course, it was impossible to come up with a better excuse for my violation...

7. Gates of Hell

Bobby Mackey's Music World is a popular bar in Wilder, Kentucky. The owner of this establishment is country singer Bobby Mackey. Three legends are associated with this place, which have become so popular that the building is put up for sale.

First. There are the gates of hell, which allow demons to enter our world. It is not yet clear why they come. Maybe they really like country music or beer.

As for the other two stories, they are more traditional. The first is about Pearl Bryan, a real-life pregnant woman who was found beheaded in the late 19th century. Her lover Scott Jackson and his friend Alonzo Walling were hanged for her murder.

The second legend is that of a woman named Joanna who is said to have fallen in love with a singer at a club. Her furious father allegedly hanged her lover in the dressing room, causing Joanna to commit suicide by poisoning. Bobby McKay wrote a song about this incident that suggests that the girl is still stalking him in that bar.

6. Patterson Road

In Houston, Texas, numerous urban legends are associated with memories of the Civil War. One of the creepiest is associated with Patterson Road, which is located next to Interstate 6. All the locals agree on one thing that the ghosts that live there were soldiers of the Civil War.

Those who believe this say that if you drive to the Langham Creek Bridge on Patterson Road at night and turn off the lights, you will hear a tapping sound or the car will be engulfed in fog. More skeptical locals point out that parking a car with the lights off on a busy bridge would be a good opportunity to become a ghost yourself.

5. Goat Man

Many stories are often made up by adults to scare children when they misbehave. Anyone who grew up in a Mexican family is familiar with this method of parenting, and many are probably still afraid of El Cucuy (Spanish).

El Cucuy, or boogie man, or more simply “the evil guy”

The stories seem to have been made up by idiotic older brothers who are always trying to scare the younger ones. For example, the story about the goat man in Beltsville, Maryland. There is no official version of this legend, but most claim that a scientist from the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center experimented on goats. And this somehow led to the fact that he himself partially became a goat, such, you know, a hybrid of a human and an animal.

4. The Snallygaster

In the 1830s, immigrants in Frederick County, Maryland, claimed to have encountered a terrifying creature. Soon after establishing a city on the site, residents began reporting sightings of a beast that was half bird and half reptile with a metal beak and razor-sharp teeth.

It also had octopus tentacles, which it used to grab people and carry them away to feed its baby squid lizards.

When you first hear this story without mentioning the creature's nickname - Snelligaster, you can easily scoff. The plot of this story acquired new details as residents reported their “sightings” from New Jersey to Ohio. But let's not find fault with these states where every second person uses drugs

3. Green man

This is perhaps the only story on this list that involves a real person with truly horrific details.

In the Koppel, Pennsylvania area, it is easy to spot a horribly disfigured man wandering the dark streets at night. He was nicknamed "Charlie without a face" or "the green man", and everyone has their own story of meeting him.

This is all because he really existed! Raymond Robinson, born in 1910, at the age of eight tried to look into a bird's nest on a bridge but had an accident. He touched a power line, which electrocuted him, causing horrific facial injuries that were permanent.

As it happens, such an appearance caused people to panic, children began to cry, so for almost all 74 years Robinson hid from people at home and went for walks at night. He became a living legend, and some people even went out at night to get a glimpse of him.

2. Dog boy

Quitman, Arkansas is another place full of ghost stories. Most houses have their own history, and to stand out from “this crowd” you need to try hard. And such a story takes place. Here it is - the legend of the boy-dog.

In 1954, Floyd and Ellyn Bettis had a son, Gerald. By the way, this house is called the Battis house. Those who knew him in his youth claim that he caught dogs and cats, kept them in his home, mercilessly tortured and killed them. But what he is really famous for is the fact that he kept his parents captive in the attic for many years. He was arrested after his father died.

Gerald himself died in prison from a drug overdose. Since then, people have been claiming that paranormal activity is happening in their home. Flickering lights, strange sounds and moving objects. Considering Gerald threw his father out of the window, it seems unsurprising that there are ghosts there.

1. Coal Man.

A famous California urban legend originates from the Ojai Valley, Park Camp. They say that the spirit of a man who was burned alive lives there, and now he suddenly appears from the forest and attacks cars and tourists. They call him the Coal Man.

There are several versions of the origin of the "coal" man, but they all begin with forest fires that occurred in the park in 1948. The main version is that father and son were held hostage by fire. The father died in the fire, but the son survived. When the rescue team arrived at the scene, they found that the son had suspended his father and pulled off his skin. At the sight of the firefighters, the son disappeared into the forest.

Another story tells about a married couple who also became victims of a fire, and tells us that the young man, also falling into the power of the fire, suffered very much and also went crazy because he could not help his wife, who screamed for help.

And yet, as usual, people say, if you come to this park, stop on the bridge and get out of the car, the Coal Man will come out to you. A horribly burned man will stumble upon you and try to rip your skin off.

Translator Ksenia Shramko

Have you ever wondered why the stories we tell each other around the fire make us shake with fear? The truth is that there is always some truth to them. These stories are believable enough to keep us afraid to sleep for the rest of the night.

Man by nature is inclined to come up with creepy stories, but there is no smoke without fire. They all had to be inspired by something, be it pure imagination or real events. And sometimes urban legends created as pranks turn into something more - real stories with real observations. Do urban monsters really come to life only through the power of human imagination, or have they always existed and we have only recently become aware of them? Either way, here are 10 terrifying urban legends that will probably give you nightmares.

The noise that comes from within... children

Perhaps this creepy story is just an urban legend. One thing is for sure: “The Sound That Comes From Within Children” (by Ed Cann) is one of the most mysterious works in the history of writing. No one really knows what exactly Ed Kann's creepy story is about, but according to one critical review and several online mentions, the content was so scary that it was banned shortly after it was published. The only review of this creation notes that if more people read this story, the entire horror genre would have to be reconsidered. But, alas, the author, like his story, disappeared from the face of the Earth. The mystery remains unsolved!

Rake is the fruit of your nightmares

The Internet has given us a whole new genre of true horror stories. It usually starts with one post, idea, or comment and then expands beyond that post into a full-blown urban legend with photos, documented sightings, and all sorts of details that make the idea increasingly real.
This happened with Rake, a two-meter humanoid who usually crawls on all fours. He has pale skin and a face without any signs of a mouth or nose, but he does have three green eyes. They say he can be seen in suburban areas, but Rake will not attack unless you approach him. But if you decide to approach, he will begin to attack, opening his mouth, which looks more like a crack in his face, with dozens of blunt teeth inside.

Goodtimes virus

These are not very fun days for hackers: they can't really do much damage, given all the antivirus software installed on modern computers. However, back in the 90s, when users did not have sophisticated programs to protect their computers, they found themselves helpless in the face of “evil” on the Internet. Hackers were something like web pirates who caused chaos and despair. Have you ever heard of viruses that can melt your entire computer?
And this is not just a turn of phrase, viruses could actually destroy not only software, but also hardware. To make matters worse, this virus replicated very quickly, sending itself to all users who are in your address book. Just imagine how many people suffered! The Goodtimes virus was sent via email when people were naive enough to open a message warning of the supposed attack. This virus managed to destroy hundreds of computers.

Ted's Caving Page Blog

If you think that modern Internet users are so gullible that they are ready to believe any rumor about the death of a celebrity or about the release of a new movie after viewing just a few posts and photos edited in Photoshop, then try to imagine how gullible people were back then. the internet was something new. Why would anyone lie on the Internet, right? But then people did the same as now.

The blog Ted's Caving Page began as an innocent project with photographs of various caves, their exits and descriptions of Ted's experiences in caving. However, things got weird when Ted and his friends found a "secret cave" that wasn't on any map. Of course, he and his friends wanted to explore all the corners of the cave with its creepy hieroglyphs. The blog ended rather abruptly after Ted and one of his colleagues began to suffer from nightmares for several weeks. They decided to go into the cave one last time, armed with knives, and this is where the story ends. It's really well thought out and feels totally real!

Goatman

Most modern urban horror stories were created on the Internet, but some have deeper roots, going back to Native American cultural heritage.
This is the story of Anansi and his meeting with Goatman. According to this story, Anansi and some of his friends decided to go camping south into the Alabama desert. There they met the creepy Goatman, who kept up with them day and night, spoke gibberish and moved in an incomprehensible way. This creature did not kill the travelers, but it affected their minds, causing them to suffer from paranoia and attack each other. This story takes spooky storytelling to a whole new level!

The Blair Witch Project

Meet the forerunner of all horror stories that virtually created the genre itself. It's a marketing campaign that operates primarily online, presenting a wealth of compelling "evidence" that the Blair Witch Witch is a real person and not an elaborate movie character. The company spent $25 million on marketing when the film's budget was only $20,000, but the idea itself really paid off! People believed they had found footage that was the premise of the film, and that it was what made it legendary. The Blair Witch Project featured three film producers who went missing during the film's production and revealed many other creepy "true" details. The whole project was so brilliantly thought out that we can't help but wonder: maybe it was all real?

Smith Sisters

Sure, so-called chain letters can be very annoying, but we don't usually think of them as creepy. However, this story will make you reconsider. She talks about a boy, John Smith, who loved to send such emails. But one day he received a letter from the mysterious Smith girls, who claimed to be his lost sisters.
In order to prove the veracity of their story, they sent him some old photographs that showed them in an old house. The boy was scared because he did not know that he had any sisters, especially dead ones (it was obvious to him that they were sending him letters from the “other side”). The Smith sisters urged him to check out the old wardrobe upstairs that he didn't know existed. Of course, the boy did what he was asked to do, but after that no one saw him again. Police found only a few carvings inside the cabinet: one labeled "Lisa and Sarah, 1993" and the other "John, 2007." So it's worth making sure you don't forget to turn on your spam filter to protect yourself from any crazy emails!

Slenderman

Each of us has heard at least once about the Thin Man, or Slender Man, and knows that he is a completely fictional character. But that doesn't make this creature any less scary. Who knows, perhaps the power of our imagination could revive it? It seems that Slenderman has been around for centuries: that's what we are supposed to believe after watching the series and playing many games with this terrifying creature. After some time, no one will remember that he was a product of our imagination, and the Thin Man will become an actual part of urban legends.
Slenderman first appeared as a dark figure in an old black and white image created using Photoshop. But then more and more photographs appeared until there was a veritable avalanche of evidence that this creature was real. It plays on our fear of the dark and all the things that lurk in it. We've all seen shadows when we turn around on a narrow stretch of poorly lit road at night, and we thought there was someone there, didn't we? You definitely saw someone. Perhaps it was Slenderman.

Russian sleep experiment

Creepy experiments carried out by the military always impress people. And they will likely remain one of the most feared topics for decades to come. There are real stories, such as the infamous Japanese Group 731, or the CIA's MKULTRA program. Therefore, it would not be surprising that the Russian military also conducted experiments on harmless citizens.

According to this legend, people were locked in cells and given drugs that prevented them from sleeping. This was done to see how long they could live without sleep. People remained in a locked room for months and slowly went crazy. After some time, the cells were opened, but there was no noise in the room filled with dozens of people. It turned out that about half of the experiment participants were dead, and the rest ate their flesh. They demanded more medication so they could never sleep. This is really heavy stuff!

Normal porn for normal people

Here we are again dealing with spam, but this time the story takes an incredibly sinister turn. You receive a link to a site with a rather unusual slogan that reads: “A site dedicated to the elimination of deviant sexuality.” You end up reading a crazy rant, but some of the words in it turn out to be links to videos.
It shows fairly harmless activities: an owner feeding a dog, a guy making himself a peanut butter sandwich and eating it, a girl playing the violin. However, in each of these videos, horrific and violent sexual acts occur, but are only visible as a glimpse on a reflective surface. From this point on, the video gets weirder. We won't spoil all the "fun" and if you're interested in this video, just check it out! If you dare.

Urban legends are often exciting stories containing many folkloric elements, and they spread quite quickly through society. Stories are told dramatically, as if they were true stories about real people - when in fact they may be 100% fictitious.

Local touches are often added to the legend, so it will be quite strange to hear the same story in different versions in different countries. Urban legends often carry a warning or some meaning that motivates society to preserve and spread them. One thing is for sure - some of these creepy urban legends have kept many people awake. Below are ten of the best urban legends:

10. Choking Doberman

This urban legend originates from Sydney, Australia and tells the story of a Doberman pinscher who choked on something. One night, a married couple went out for a walk and sat in a restaurant, when they returned home, they saw their dog choking in the living room. The man panicked and fainted, and the wife decided to call her old friend, a veterinarian, and arranged to bring the dog to the veterinary clinic.

After she took the dog to the clinic, she decided to return home and help her husband go to bed. This takes her some time and meanwhile the phone rang. The veterinarian screams hysterically into the phone that they need to quickly get out of their house. Without understanding what is happening, the married couple leaves the house as quickly as possible.

As they descend the stairs, several police officers run towards them. When the woman asks what happened, one of the officers replies that their dog choked on a man's finger. There is most likely still a burglar in their house. Soon after, the finger's former owner was found unconscious in the couple's bedroom.

9. Suicidal guy


This story, also known as "Death of the Boyfriend", is told in many variations and is considered a general warning not to stray too far from the safety of your home. Our version will focus on Paris in the 1960s. A girl and her boyfriend (both college students) kiss in his car. They parked near the Rambouillet forest so that no one could see them. When they finished, the guy got out of the car to get some fresh air and smoke a cigarette, while the girl waited for him in the safety of the car.

After she waited five minutes, the girl got out of the car to find her boyfriend. Suddenly she sees a man hiding in the shadow of a tree. Frightened, she gets back into the car to quickly leave - but while she was getting in, she heard a very quiet creaking sound, followed by several more creaking sounds.

This continues for several seconds, but the girl eventually decides that she has no other choice and decides to leave. She presses the gas pedal, but can’t go anywhere - someone tied a cable from the car’s bumper to a tree growing nearby.

As a result, the girl presses the gas pedal again and hears a loud scream. She gets out of the car and finds her boyfriend hanging from a tree. As it turned out, the creaking sounds were made by his shoes dragging along the roof of the car.

8. Woman with a torn mouth


In Japan and China, there is a legend about the girl Kuchisake-Onna, also known as the woman with the torn mouth. Some say she was the wife of a samurai. One day, she cheated on her husband with a young and handsome man. When the husband returned, he discovered her betrayal, and in a rage he took his sword and cut her mouth from ear to ear.

Some say that the woman was cursed - she will never die, and still walks around the world so that people can see the terrible scar on her face and feel sorry for her. Some claim that they saw a beautiful young girl who asked them: “Am I beautiful?” And when they answered positively, she tore off her mask and showed a terrible wound. Then she repeated her question - and anyone who stopped considering her beautiful would face a tragic death.

There are two morals to this story: it costs nothing to give a compliment, and honesty is not the best approach in all situations.

7. Bridge of the Crying Child


According to this legend, a couple was driving home from church with their child and arguing about something. It was raining heavily, and soon they had to cross a flooded bridge. As soon as they drove onto the bridge, it turned out that there was much more water than they thought, and the car was stuck - they decided that they had to go for help. The woman remained waiting, but got out of the car for a reason that one can only guess about.

When she turned away from the car, she suddenly heard her child crying loudly. She returned to the car and discovered that her child had been swept away by the water. According to the same legend, if you are on the same bridge, you can still hear a child crying there (the location of the bridge, of course, is unknown).

6 Alien Abduction of Zanfretta


The story of the kidnapping of Fortunato Zanfretta has become one of the most famous urban legends in Italy over the past few decades.

According to his own stories (originally made under hypnosis), Zanfretta was abducted by aliens Dragos from the planet Teetonia, and over the course of several years (1978-1981) he was repeatedly abducted several times by the same group from another planet. No matter how terrifying and creepy this story may sound, if we take into account the words of Zanfretta, spoken by him during a hypnosis session, we can evaluate the intentions of the aliens from an optimistic point of view:

“I know that you want to fly more often... no, you can’t fly to Earth, people will be scared of what you look like. You can't become our friends. Please fly away."

Zanfretta has perhaps provided more details about his alien abduction than any other person in history - his detailed accounts can make even the most ardent skeptic wonder if there is some truth to it. Until this day, the Zanfretta case remains one of the most interesting and mysterious "secret files".

5. White Death


This story is about a little girl from Scotland who hated life so much that she wanted to destroy everything connected with her. Finally, she decided to commit suicide, and soon after, her family discovered what she had done.

In a terrible coincidence, all members of her family died a few days later, their limbs torn off. Legend says that when you hear about the White Death, the ghost of a little girl may find you and knock on your door many times. Each knock gets louder until the man opens the door, after which she kills him so that he will not tell anyone else about her existence. Her main task is to make sure no one knows about her.

Like most urban legends, this story is most likely the product of the unbridled imagination of a modern Aesop.

4. Black Volga


According to rumors, on the streets of Warsaw in the 1960s, a black Volga was often spotted - in which people who kidnapped children were sitting. According to legend (no doubt aided by Western propaganda), Soviet officers rode around Moscow in the black Volga in the mid-1930s, kidnapping young, pretty girls to satisfy the sexual needs of high-ranking Soviet comrades. According to other versions of this legend, vampires, mystical priests, Satanists, human traffickers and even Satan himself lived in the Volga.

According to different versions of the legend, children were kidnapped in order to use their blood as a treatment for rich people from different parts of the world suffering from leukemia. Naturally, none of these versions were ever confirmed.

3. Greek soldier


This lesser-known legend tells of a Greek soldier who returned home after World War II to marry his bride. Unfortunately for him, he was captured by his compatriots with enemy political beliefs, tortured for five weeks and then killed. In the early 1950s, mainly in northern and central Greece, stories circulated of an attractive Greek soldier in uniform who would appear and quickly disappear, seducing beautiful widows and virgins with one goal - to give them a child.

Five weeks after the child was born, the man disappeared forever - leaving a note on the table in which he explained that he was returning from the world of the dead so that he could have sons who could avenge his murder.

2. Elisa Day


In medieval Europe, there lived a young girl named Eliza Day, whose beauty was like the wild roses growing by the river - bloody and red. One day a young man came to town and instantly fell in love with Eliza. They met for three days. On the first day he came to her house. On the second day, he brought her one red rose and asked her to meet where wild roses grow. On the third day, he took her to the river, where he killed her. The terrible man waited until she turned away from him, after which he took a stone and, whispering “All beauty must die,” killed her with one blow to the head. He put a rose in her teeth and pushed her body into the river. Some people claim to have seen her ghost wandering along the river bank, holding a single rose in her hand and blood streaming from her head.

Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave have a very beautiful song on the theme of this legend - “Where The Wild Roses Grow”:

1. Well to Hell


In 1989, Russian scientists drilled a well in Siberia to a depth of approximately 14.5 kilometers. The drill fell into a cavity in the earth's crust, and scientists lowered several devices into it to figure out what was going on. The temperature there exceeded 1000 degrees Celsius, but the real shock was what they heard on the recording.

Only 17 terrifying seconds of sound were recorded before the microphone melted. Many of the scientists, convinced that they had heard the cries of the damned from hell, quit their jobs - or so the story goes. Those who remained were even more shocked that night. A stream of luminescent gas shot out from the well, transforming into the shape of a giant winged demon, and then the words “I have won” could be read in the lights. Although the story is currently considered fiction, there are many people who believe it actually happened - the urban legend "The Well to Hell" is told to this day.

The world is full of stories about mythical monsters, mysterious creatures and legendary beasts. Some of these monsters were inspired by real animals or found fossils, while others are symbolic expressions of people's deepest fears. In our review, the story will be about the strangest and most terrible monsters.

1. Soukoyant

Soukoyant in the mythology of the Caribbean islands is a type of werewolf that belongs to a class of spirits (called "jambies" by the local population). During the day, the soukoyant looks like a weak old woman, and at night this creature sheds its skin, places it in a mortar, into which a special solution is poured, after which it turns into a fireball flying across the sky in search of victims. Soukoyant sucks the blood from his victims and then exchanges it for demons with otherworldly power.

Similar to European vampire myths, if a soukoyant drinks too much blood from its victim, it will either die or become a similar monster itself. To kill a soukoyant, you need to pour salt into the solution in which its skin lies, after which the creature will die at dawn (it will not be able to “put” the skin back on).

2. Kelpie

Kelpie is a water spirit that lives in the rivers and lakes of Scotland. Although the Kelpie usually appears in the form of a horse, it can also take the form of a human. Kelpies often lure people into giving them rides on their backs, after which they drag their victims underwater and devour them. However, stories of the evil water horse also served as an excellent warning to children to stay away from the water, and to women to be wary of handsome strangers.

3. Basilisk

The basilisk is usually described as a crested snake, although descriptions of a rooster with a snake's tail are sometimes found. This creature can kill birds with its fiery breath, people with its gaze, and other living creatures with its usual hiss. Legends say that the basilisk is born from a snake or toad egg that was hatched by a rooster. The word "basilisk" is translated from Greek as "little king", so this creature is often called the "snake king". During the Middle Ages, basilisks were accused of causing plague epidemics and mysterious murders.

4. Asmodeus

Asmodeus is a demon of lust who is mainly known from the Book of Tobit (a deuterocanonical book of the Old Testament). He pursues a woman named Sarah and kills seven of her husbands out of jealousy. In the Talmud, Asmodeus is mentioned as the prince of demons who expelled King Solomon from his kingdom. Some folklorists believe that Asmodeus is the son of Lilith and Adam. Legend has it that he is responsible for perverting people's sexual desires.

5. Yorogumo

There are probably more bizarre cryptozoological creatures in Japanese myth than there are in all the seasons of The X-Files. One of the most bizarre is the Yogorumo or "harlot" - an arachnid monster of the Yokai (goblin-like creatures) family. The legend of Yogorumo originated during the Edo period in Japan. It is believed that when a spider reaches the age of 400 years, it gains magical powers. In most legends, the spider turns into a beautiful woman, seduces men and lures them to her home, plays the biwa (Japanese lute) for them, and then entangles them in webs and devours them.

6. Black Annis

A ghostly witch from English folklore, Black Annis is an old woman with a blue face and iron claws who haunted peasants in Leicestershire. Legend has it that she lives in a cave in the Dane Hills, and at night she wanders around looking for children to devour. If Black Annis catches a child, she tans its skin and then wears it wrapped around her waist. Needless to say, parents used Black Annis to scare their children when they misbehaved.

7. Nabau

In 2009, two aerial photographs taken by researchers in Borneo showed a 30-meter snake swimming down a river. There is still debate over the authenticity of this photograph, as well as whether it actually shows a snake. Some argue that it is a log or a large boat. However, locals living along the Baleh River insist the creature is Nabau, an ancient dragon-like monster from Indonesian folklore. According to legend, Nabau is over 30 meters long, has a head with seven nostrils, and can take the form of several different animals.

8. Dullahan

Most people are familiar with Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and the story of the Headless Horseman. The Irish Dullahan or "dark man" is essentially a precursor to the ghost of the beheaded Hessian soldier who haunted Ichabod Crane. In Celtic mythology, the dullahan is a harbinger of death. He rides a large black horse with flaming eyes and carries his head under his arm.

Some stories say that the dullahan calls out the name of a person who is about to die, while others say that he marks that person by pouring a bucket of blood on him. Like many monsters and mythical creatures, the Dullahan has one weakness: gold.

9. Red caps

Evil goblins in red caps live on the border between England and Scotland. According to legends, they usually live in ruined castles and kill lost travelers by throwing boulders from cliffs onto them. The goblins then paint the caps with the blood of their victims. Redcaps are forced to kill as often as possible because if the blood on their caps dries up, they die.

Evil creatures are usually depicted as old men with red eyes, large teeth, claws and holding a staff. They are faster and stronger than humans. Legend has it that the only way to escape such a goblin is to shout a quote from the Bible.

10. Brahmaparusha

Brahmaparusha is a vampire, but he is not at all ordinary. These evil spirits, which are told in Hindu mythology, have a lust for human brains. Unlike the suave, dapper vampires who live in Romania, the Brahmaparusha is a grotesque creature that wears the intestines of its victims around its neck and head. He also carries a human skull with him and when he kills a new victim, he pours his blood into this skull and drinks from it.

It is no less interesting to learn about.

The world is full of scary stories and urban myths. But how to determine which of this is true? We invite you to draw your own conclusion which of this is fiction and which is fact. YouTube blogger under the nickname "Zombie Chaz" collected the scary legends of the world in his videos, and we selected the 10 creepiest of them.

Slender Man, or Slenderman

According to legend, the Slender Man is a tall, thin man dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and black tie. He has long thin arms and legs, and his face is completely featureless.

His arms can stretch, and tentacles grow from his back.

When the Slender Man appears, his victim loses memory, experiences insomnia, paranoia, a coughing fit, and blood flows from the nose.

If Slenderman is spotted in the area, it means that children will soon disappear. He lures them into the forest, deprives them of their minds and takes them away with him. Those children who were carried away by the Slender Man were never seen again.

In 1983, 14 children disappeared in Stirling City, USA. Their disappearance was linked to the Slender Man. Later, in the city library they found a photograph taken by an unknown photographer that day, and it allegedly showed a monster.

Both girls ended up in a psychiatric hospital: one for 25 years, the other for 40.

Black Dog of Meriden

The Meriden Black Dog, from the U.S. state of Connecticut, is a small ghost dog that leaves no marks and makes no sounds. According to legend, if you see the Black Dog three times, you will die. It appears silently, leaves no traces (even in the snow), and then just as suddenly disappears.

In the early 1900s, geologist Pynchon explored a Meriden mountain called West Peak. One day he saw a black dog among the trees. As Pynchon turned to head home, the dog disappeared into the trees.

The second time the scientist saw a black dog a few years later in the same place. One of his friends, with whom he was climbing the mountain that day, said that he had already seen the dog twice.

They wandered around and finally came to the top. But the enemy was waiting for them. The black dog stood in front. Pynchon only turned away for a second when he suddenly heard a terrible scream. His friend fell and hit the rocks.

In Meriden, local residents told Pynchon about the legend of the Black Dog, but he did not believe it. Several years passed, the geologist decided to visit the same mountain. He left his apartment at dawn and never returned. His dead body was later found at the bottom of a ravine.

Pisadeira

In Brazil there is a legend about a scary woman named Pisadeira. It comes to men who are afraid, or to those who have eaten a heavy dinner and lie down on their backs - in this position, Pisadeira’s victim is practically unable to escape.

Pisadeira is a bony and thin creature, she has short lower limbs and long dirty hair, a hooked nose, reddish eyes, thin lips, sharp teeth with a greenish coating. Her long fingers have wide yellow nails. But even more frightening is the laughter and mocking giggle of the monster. If a person hears characteristic laughter at night, it means that Pisadeira will soon come to him. It is the creepy laughter that precedes her appearance.

The monster tortures its victim until she suffocates from fright, but Pisadeira can also leave a person, having had enough of fear.

Phantom of Benito Juarez Park in Mexico

In the small Mexican town of Jaral del Progreso there is Benito Juarez Park. This is one of the city's attractions, but the park was laid out on the site of an old cemetery, so a bad reputation has spread about it. The city authorities landscaped the square as best they could. They installed benches and paved paths so that people could enjoy the beauty of nature. However, local residents believed that the authorities had awakened local spirits and a curse was placed on the place.

Every evening in the park someone destroyed the benches and disappeared. Authorities then hired security guards to patrol the area at night.

And then one evening the guard began duty. At first everything was calm. The riots began when the park was covered in thick fog. The security guard heard a woman scream and went to check what had happened. When he reached the place, an elderly woman dressed in a white dress stood in front of him. The watchman followed her, and she began to destroy and throw benches.

When the guard approached her, he saw that the woman had no legs, she was floating in the air. Suddenly the old woman pounced on him and began beating him furiously. The guard managed to escape, and the next morning he told about what he saw. Shortly after this incident, he fell ill with a mysterious illness and died. The city authorities forbade talking about this story in the media, but the rumor still spread throughout the city; no one else wanted to be on duty at night.

Locals called the ghost the phantom of the park.

Girl from the closet

One day, a 57-year-old Japanese man noticed that someone was rearranging things in his house, food was disappearing from the refrigerator, and strange noises woke him up at night. The man decided that he was going crazy because he lived all alone. Both the windows and doors in his house were always closed.

One day he decided to take action and installed hidden cameras in all the rooms.

The next day he looked at the footage. In the footage, an unknown woman crawled out of the Japanese man's cupboard. The man assumed that she was a robber. But police said no one broke the locks.

After a thorough search, the woman was found in a small locker. As it turned out, she lived in a Japanese man’s house for a year.

Maryland Goat Man

For many residents of the United States, Prince George's County in the American state of Maryland is associated with a bloodthirsty monster called the Goat Man.

According to legend, the monster used to be an ordinary goat breeder. One day his wife became seriously ill, and he had to work tirelessly to help his beloved. But the cruel teenagers decided to play a trick on the poor guy and poisoned all his goats. The family was left without their only source of income, and the woman died.

Grief turned the farmer into a terrible monster, he ran into the forest and began killing everyone who crossed his path.

According to another version, the goat man is a scientific experiment of the mad scientist Dr. Fletcher. Local residents believe that prohibited experiments on animals were carried out at the district's agricultural research center. Once, through an experiment, a scientist created a half-man, half-goat. The researchers decided to keep him alive for study. But the creature grew up and turned into a cruel monster. He killed several scientists and escaped from the center.

Whether this is true or a myth, strange events took place in the area in the 50s of the 20th century. In 1958, residents found a German shepherd dead: the dog had been torn to shreds, but its meat had not been eaten.

In the spring of 1961, two students were found dead in the northeastern Maryland town of Bowie. The girl and the boy went into the forest at night. In the morning, a local hunter found a car with broken windows and many deep scratches on the body. The teenagers' bodies, mutilated beyond recognition, were found in the back seat. The criminal was never found.

In 2011, the American horror film "Deadly Detour" was released, inspired by the Maryland monster.

According to Irish folklore, the banshee is a spirit from the other world. She appears in the form of an ugly woman to the relatives and friends of the one who is about to die. It is believed that if a banshee did not cry loudly enough before her death, then in the next world her screams will be several times worse.

Banshees look like scary screaming women, old women with flowing gray hair, a scary wrinkled face and skeletal thinness.

The legend of an American girl who took revenge on her lover

In the USA there is a terrible legend about a girl who took revenge on her lover for unrequited love. In the small town of Stahl, Texas, there once stood a small church surrounded by graves. Next to the church there was a cellar, which was very difficult to find, as it was overgrown with grass.

The priest's daughter fell madly in love with a neighbor boy, but he broke her heart by choosing another girl. They got married, his chosen one became pregnant. Soon after the birth of the child, the priest's daughter visited the couple. They greeted her cordially, but the girl herself looked at their child with hatred.

The priest's daughter suddenly attacked her parents and cut both their throats, then she dragged their bodies to the hill where the church stood. She left the dead in the cellar and placed the living child between them.

The priest's daughter closed the door to the cellar and soon died. The bodies in the cellar could not be found for three weeks.

Many believe that the voice of a crying child can still be heard near the church at night.

Corpse house in Mexico

In the Mexican city of Monterey there is a famous legend about an abandoned building called the "corpse house." The strange structure was built in the 1970s, but no one has ever lived in the building.

From the street, the house looks like a structure made of concrete pipes. According to legend, the house was built by a wealthy couple who had a sick, paralyzed daughter. My father wanted to build a special house that would be suitable for people with disabilities. The design of the house included ramps that led from one floor to another.

The family began construction. One day the girl wanted to look at the house. She began to ride on the ramps, her parents were distracted for just a moment, when suddenly her wheelchair flew down the ramp. The girl could not stop, as a result she flew out the window and fell to her death.

Years later, the unfinished building was put up for sale. But no one wanted to buy it for a long time. One day there were clients. They came to see the building with their little son. While the couple were examining the situation, the boy went upstairs, and a few minutes later they heard him scream. On the top floor he was fighting with a little girl. An unknown person grabbed their son and threw him out the window. The boy died, the girl could not be found.

After this story, the authorities fenced off the area.

In 1941, a certain Mary Shaw performed with her Billy doll in one of the theaters in the American city of Ravens Fair. One day one of the spectators - a little boy - called the woman a liar. He saw the woman's lips move as Billy spoke. A few weeks later, the unfortunate critic disappeared.

Residents of the city and the boy's parents blamed the ventriloquist for his disappearance. Mary Shaw was soon found dead. According to local legend, the Eshen family (the boy’s relatives) committed lynching against the woman. They burst into the dressing room, forced Shaw to scream, and then ripped out her tongue.

Before her death, the woman wished that all her dolls be buried with her, there were 101 of them.

After the ventriloquist's funeral, massacres began in Raven's Fair. And the victims of crimes were those people who raised their hands on the Show. They, like Mary, had their tongues pulled out.