Monstrum

Yuki-Onna, the icy snow maiden of Japanese lore, might steal your heart, or your life. This harsh winter monster is beautiful and dangerous, the incarnation of winter storms.

If you are unlucky enough to summon Bloody Mary, there’s no real standard of what you’ll see. By some accounts, she’s hideously mutilated but in others she is beautiful but bloody—more commonly though—every aspect of her appearance is vague. There’s even versions where she was a witch burned at the stake in Salem. In some legends, she’s connected to a cult. But where she comes from and what she looks like is less important than the ritual that summons her.

Unicorns are all over the place in popular culture these days - movies, TV shows, toys, clothing and books for children and adults alike. But you might be interested to learn that the majestic, all-white horse with a spiralized horn on its forehead is just one version of the many varieties of unicorn that have appeared in folklore throughout history.

Advances in technology are always met with some degree of technophobia—and villainization. And cyborgs represent a special kind of fear inherent in losing ourselves in the technologies we create.

Humans have domesticated animals as beasts of burden for thousands of years and the vital role horses play in the evolution of culture in particular has inspired countless equine folklore, but none are quite like the centaur.

Pokémon are inspired by flora and fauna, science, religion, yokai and other supernatural beings. But the series is teeming with not just Japanese folklore, but versions of monsters from across the globe made cute with softened features.

The lines between demon, spirit, and deity are often blurred in the cultures of the Indian subcontinent, where the clear “good vs. evil” dualism that is seen more commonly in the Western hemisphere don’t exist in quite the same way. The complex nature of a nocturnal entity called Nishi reflects this, although it does fall firmly into the malevolent end of the spectrum.

The half-human half-fish Nixie may look very familiar at first. But these shape-shifting monsters, with their eerie songs that lure humans to the watery depths, are much older, and much scarier, than the mermaids we know from pop-culture.

Existing somewhere between boogeyman, scapegoat, and temperamental fae, the known trickster called Púca is an animal-spirit that was once dreaded across Ireland, the Channel Islands, and England.

Uncovering the Enigma: Sasquatch Sightings and Our Deep Fear of the Wild Is Bigfoot a benevolent beast or bloodthirsty killer? Depends on who you ask, and when! Regardless, the legend of Sasquatch dates back thousands of years and still captivates us to this day.

Join us as we delve deep into the mysterious world of the SCP Foundation, uncovering the most enigmatic and anomalous objects ever contained.

Maybe it’s the unblinking eyes, staring at you, emotionless, day and night. Or, perhaps it’s their small size acting as a cloak of innocence. Or their human-like appearance that makes them seem just slightly too real. However, you want to spin it—there’s something creepy about dolls.

Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, Bloody Mary and Ouija are scary and entertaining rites of passage for kids and teens to participate in. But do these games actually work? And why do we love to scare each other so much at sleepovers?

When did clowns—the characters who filled our childhoods with juggling and balloons—become so creepy? For centuries, clowns have worn two faces: as irreverent entertainers, and tricksters who could break social norms. So when stories of scary clowns pop up all over popular culture, it's a sign that we're wondering who clowns really are behind the costume. Do they want to make us laugh? Or scream?

The coastal villages of Wales around the winter holidays have a bizarre nighttime visitor: a grim skeletal horse who roams the streets with a rag tag group, demanding food and drink from neighborhood families. But is this really a monster to be feared, or one that is rather cheered?