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37 Monsters That Live Rent Free in Our Nightmares Now

September 12, 2023

Monsters have been a part of human culture since ancient times, appearing in mythology, folklore and literature. In many cases, monsters are used to symbolize the dark side of human nature, embodying our fears and anxieties. But monsters can also be seen as symbols of hope and change, representing the potential for redemption and growth. Scary or not, though, here are some facts about monsters that kept our heads spinning right before bed…

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Why are witches often depicted with warts? Because warts were considered the CRACKED.COM Devil's Mark during the Witch Panic of the 1600s. Those thought to be witches were searched from head to toe for a sign of the Devil's Mark, which could be anything from a scar to a mole to a wart. Warts were also believed by some to be the witch's teat, used to feed a witch's familiar (pet). — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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Dragons breathe fire because of the way CRACKED.COM medieval art depicted hell, scholars say. In medieval art, the entrance to hell was a monster's giant mouth, belching fire and smoke. Dragons (considered Satanic creatures) started breathing fire after that image of the entrance to hell became widespread. — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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CRACKED.COM A Jackalope's antlers are not actually horns. Those are cancerous tumors created by the Shope papillomavirus. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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Zanzibar's Popobawa is a demon described as a bat-like creature with one large eye, but it can also appear in different forms. The Popobawa creeps into rooms at night where it sexually assaults the entire household, although it prefers engaging with men. Before leaving, it instructs its victims to tell others about the attack. If not, it will return. CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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The Grootslang is said to have been a mistake by the gods. They made a dangerous creature that was strong, smart, and frightening. Half elephant Half snake Eventually the gods unmade them, but at least one grootslang is said to have escaped, and CRACKED.COM supposedly still lives in a cave in Richtersveld, South Africa. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

31

We have Japan to credit for the Ittan Momen® The Ittan Momen is a sentient roll of cotton that flies around at night smothering people....to death. CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

30

THE LOVELAND FROGMEN are short humanoid creatures with frog heads that have been sighted exclusively around Loveland, OH. 4'0 They are mostly spotted at night, near water, and have been reported to have a wand that shoots sparks. 21 CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

29

According to the Greenland Inuit, a TUPILAQ is an evil being made from parts of animals and dead children. Its creator puts it in the water and sends it forth to attack a specific victim. It is imbued with power by sucking the genitals of its creator. CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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CRACKED.COM Genderuwo is a sleazy giant that terrorizes the people of Indonesia. Genderuwo is a gigantic hairy man who loves to seduce lonely women, especially those neglected by their husbands or who have recently been widowed. It uses magic to seduce these women and there's nothing they can do to resist a Genderuwo's advances. Other than to satisfy its insatiable sexual desire, a Genderuwo also seeks to impregnate these women who will give birth to more Genderuwos. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

27

Pangkarlangu is a monster that Indigenous people in the north of Australia believe in. It's a huge, hairy and sharp-clawed creature that roams the desert, capturing and eating human babies. CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

26

CRACKED.COM The ahuízotl is a Mexican aquatic dog with spiky fur and a monkey hand in its tail. It attracts its victims by crying like an abandoned baby, drags them into the water and eats them. Well...just its favorite parts like eyes, teeth, and nails. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

25

Sundel Bolong is the ghost of an Indonesian woman who was killed while pregnant and gave birth in her grave. The name, which roughly means a whore with a hole, refers to a hole on her back through which her baby crawled out. She exacts vengeance upon sleazy men by posing as a beautiful woman when she's not busy abducting babies or eating placentas. CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

24

La Ciguapa is a Dominican creature depicted as a beautiful slender woman with silky hair and backward feet. All FRoder's The legend goes that these women steal various things from the nearest villages such as raw meat, butter, and the occasional lonely man. They would lure these men with their beauty and passionately make love to the men which would kill them in the process. CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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CRAGKED.COM SNALLYGASTER THIS TENTACLED BEAST HAILS FROM RURAL MARYLAND. IT FEASTS ON POULTRY AND CHILDREN. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

22

The Nuckelavee is part man, part horse, all monster. The creature has no hair or skin. It travels across Scotland destroying all livestock, crops and humans that it encounters. GRAGKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

21

Q: How did we come to depict the Grim Reaper with a scythe? A:The Great Plague happened. Where: Asia and Europe When: mid-1300s Death toll estimation: 25 million While earlier depictions of Death showed him using swords and other tools, the scythe was regarded by medieval people to be more productive for reaping crops... ...and in the case of the Grim Reaper, souls. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

20

Ever wonder why Vampires have no reflection? It's because mirrors were originally backed with silver. Some say vampires are sensitive to silver because Ambrogio, supposedly the first vampire, was cursed to be burned by its touch. Or that silver is a metal that early cultures associate with purity, and vampires are impure. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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37 Monsters That Live Rent Free in Our Nightmares Now — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

18

The Blob was allegedly based on a real event. CLA LUGOSI AIR CONDITIONER ONDITIONED WATCH EPAINNS The sticky, crystal-filled, fog-emitting blob in question was reportedly witnessed falling from the sky by two Philadelphia officers in 1950. The FBI was called, but it disappeared before the cops' eyes before the federal agents got there. CRACKED COM — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

17

Zombies are slow and shambling because of a single movie's choices. George Romero made the zombies in 1968's Night of the Living Dead slow and shambling, because he thought they should have some rigor mortis. Later zombie movies just took his ideas. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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CRACKED.COM There are two theories for why witches wear pointy hats, but both say it's a symbol of hate. One theory says it comes from the Jewish hats Jews had to wear in the Middle Ages (when they were often associated with Satan). Another says it's from Quaker headgear (in the mid-18th century, when the myth of the witch started to spread in the U.S., Quakers were believed to practice witchcraft). — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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Haitian zombies could have been drugged.up CRACKED.COM slaves. А voodoo priest uses a chemical called tetrodotoxin to put victims into a zombie-like state. These zombies were possibly used as free labor on farms and sugar cane plantations. — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

14

The reason werewolves transform during the full moon might have to do with their bodies reacting to plasma projected from the moon, which is stronger when it is full. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

13

King Ghidora's multiple heads were inspired by Yamata no Orochi. Japanese legends describe Orochi as a dragon or snake with eight heads, which some scholars believe represent the branches of a winding river that was tamed for irrigation. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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Vampires CRACKED.COM were actually cataleptic people trying to escape their coffins in the Middle Ages. Cataleptic episodes, loss of consciousness and the rigidity of the body, can sometimes last for days. This is oftentimes mistaken for death. The cataleptic then tries to claw his way out upon waking up. — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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The Creature from the Black Lagoon... ...was modeled after the Academy Award with an added set of gills around its body. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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CRACKED.COM The white sheet ghosts most likely were inspired by the old tradition of burying people in white shrouds. — Source: 23 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Legendary Monsters

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CRACKED.COM If your money inexplicably goes missing in Malaysia, you can blame it on a Toyol. Toyols are mischievous child spirits invoked by witch doctors from aborted babies. They are used to perform petty crimes for them, as long as they are fed with blood every night. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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A Tiyanak is a Philippine mythological monster that disguises itself as a baby crying for help in the middle of the woods. The Tiyanak turns into a monster when its lured victim is near, then goes back to being a helpless baby after killing its victim. CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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CRACKED.COM According to Southeast Asian folklore, Orang Minyak (literally translated from Malay as 'Oily Man') is a creature coated with black grease, who goes about raping virgins. This monstrous creature is so widely believed in the region it constantly makes the news. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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This is the Mapinguari, the one-eyed Bigfoot of the Amazonian Jungle... Which some scientists suspect might actually be a type of giant sloth nowadays considered extinct. CRACKED.COM — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

4

IN Lithuanian FOLK LORE, Aitvaras... IF IT ROOSTER MIGHT HATCH LAYS . INTO AN EGG AN A A DEMONIC chicken THAT LIVES IN YOUR HOUSE AND BRINGS YOU BAD LUCK UNLESS YOU feed it. IN REALITY, IF A ROOSTER LAYS AN EGG, THEN YOU WERE PROBABLY MISTAKEN ABOUT OWNING A ROOSTER. CRACKED.COM — Source

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CRACKED.COM This is the Bola de Fuego, a South American monster. A fireball with the shape of a human skull, it's attracted to prayers. If you want to escape it, you must try swearing at it instead. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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CRACKED.COM DOVENS Faceless children with feet turned backwards that haunt Trinidad and Tobago. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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The Jararcha CRACKED.COM Halfman, half llama; the Jajarcha was once a Peruvian man who got cursed by god for commiting incest. — Source: 31 Terrifying Monsters Causing Insomnia Around The World

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