Last November I took your hand and we went on an unforgettable adventure to eight of the scariest goddamn places in the world. We visited some of the darkest and most depraved corners of the world, but some of you wanted more. Your insatiable lust for this sort of thing unnerves me a little, because when most people prefer tropical cruises, backpacking abroad, or camping in the wilderness, you’d rather take a stroll through these locales. I suppose part of me understands, I mean, who wants to get sea sick, or fight off thirsty mosquitoes? I saw those Hostel movies and those flicks pretty much guaranteed my ass won’t be visiting any part of Europe without an armed escort. Lucky for us, we can visit these places through the magic that is lots and lots of words (and a few pretty pictures).

Besides, who wants sunshine, fresh air, and amazing food when you can visit a Japanese forest where people go to die, a European church furnished with human bone, or an island whose ground is literally covered with highly venomous snakes? That’s far more memorable, and really, a vacation isn’t fun unless you have a chance of dying slowly and painfully, right? As twisted as our first vacation was, I dare say the eight places I have waiting for you after the jump are even more terrifying. Make sure your bags are packed, and you don’t have any fluids over 3.5 fluid ounces, because I’d very much like to whisk you away on another adventure. My treat.

Nestled deep within the borders of Scotland, past the old men wearing kilts and playing bag-pipes (that’s literally the only thing I know about Scottland) is a beautiful little place that a bridge calls home. But this bridge isn’t like any other bridge, in fact, I’m almost positive this is what paranormal experts and renowned demonologists refer to as an evil fucking bridge. Like, it was formed in the fiery pits of hell by thousands of tormented souls who were forced to work long hours without overtime. Without. Overtime.

Over the last half century upwards of 600 dogs have died after jumping off the Overtoun Bridge before falling roughly fifty feet to the rocky bottom below. Now, this isn’t a slippery bridge, it isn’t easy to fall off it even if you are a particularly clumsy individual (such as myself), and it’s evil only seems to have an effect on man’s best friend. There aren’t any stories of Parakeets escaping their cages and dive-bombing over the bridge’s edge, Kamikaze style. For some reason, dogs just want to die here. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, I’m about to take this shit to a whole new level of weird. What’s even more disturbing then hundreds of dogs committing suicide at the same spot, you ask? How about the reports of “second timers,” or the dogs that, after failing the first time, return to the bridge to have another go?

This one isn’t scary in the sense that there’s an evil lurking inside it, waiting to skullfuck you with its massive Liam Neeson-sized demon penis. Instead it’s terrifying in that you’re really going to need a tetanus shot after even looking at a picture of it. Err, sorry, I guess I should’ve thrown a warning above the picture. Too late now!

The Kowloon Walled city was a densely overpopulated ungoverned settlement in Hong Kong. After Japan occupied the city during World War II the population started climbing real fast, and kept growing until in 1987 when the population reached 33,000 residents. Not impressed? How about the fact that all 33,000 of its citizens were packed like sardines in its compact 6.5 acre borders, or that many of these citizens were criminals on the run? Hong Kong is already one of the most densely populated places on earth with about 6,700 people per square kilometer, but that’s nothing when compared to Kowloon’s population density of 1,255,000/km2.

Because of the lack of any real police force inside the walled city it soon became a refuge for criminals, and until the late 70’s it was overflowing with brothels, opium dens, gambling parlors and Triad groups. The Kowloon Walled City might not make my hair stand on end but it definitely would’ve made me miss my Fiji water and warmed toilet seat. I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t have been a place to charge my iPod either, and you wouldn’t like me without my Barry Manilow. That’s real terror.

While we’re on the subject of necessities like bum-warming toilet seats, another thing many of us take for granted is a little thing called clean air. You know, that mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide that keeps us alive? Because of all the volcanic activity in the area, the air surrounding the Izu Islands is mostly comprised of sulfur. This wouldn’t be a problem for zombies, but for humans that’s bad. Thankfully, no one’s lived there for a very long time.

Wait, yes they do. The island’s residents aren’t going anywhere despite the nearby volcano that keeps spewing poison into the air, and they’ve even adapted to it. By adapting to it I mean they wear gas masks. All the time. When I try to imaging the lives these people live I like to picture gas mask-wearing people taking their dogs for walks (of course, the dogs have special little masks of their own), sleeping with them on, and eating… wait, how do they eat? How? HOW?!

I’ve mentioned this place before but I feel it deserves a spot on this list because it’s quite possibly the only place in the world that looks frighteningly similar to Silent Hill. The old style of the town, where everything looks like it’s been lost in time. Hell, it even has a layer of smoke covering some sections of the town, thanks to the fire that’s burning underneath it. Oh, did I not mention that? Yeah, there’s totally a coal fire blazing under the town, a fire that will continue burning for many, many more years.

Because the entire town is still burning, it’s been cordoned off from the rest of the world (a trait Centralia shares with Silent Hill…) because there’s a very good chance that if you were happily strolling across what looked like a field of grass, said field could spontaneously cave in on you. Then you’d spend a little while being burned alive inside a sinkhole, wondering why you visited this ghost town in the first place. Oh, and there’s a chance that Pyramid Head might pop up randomly. A chance.

Believe it or not, there are still a few tribes of people out there that have retained little to no contact with the rest of the world. They speak their own languages, have their own government (or whatever they call it), and might fuck your shit up if you ever try to say hi. The Sentinel Island has a particularly nasty tribe of indigenous people called the Sentinelese, who – prepare yourself for this – don’t know what an Xbox is. I know.

Five years ago they proved just how dangerous they really are when Sentinelese archers killed two men who were fishing near the island. They even drove off the helicopter that arrived to collect the corpses with arrows. If you’re still thinking it might be safe to check this place out, maybe see if you can use your fancy iPhone to wow them and become their new King/Shaman/Master/etc. I suggest watching a movie called Cannibal Holocaust.

As far as I know there’s little that’s actually wrong with Machecoul, France, but there’s no denying that it was the home to some insanely twisted adventures by a man named Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, or Gilles de Rais. A quick glance at his resume makes him out to be some sort of hero since he fought alongside Joan of Arc. Unfortunately, he was also a serial killer.

You know, I think there should be a cap on how many people someone can kill before they get upgraded from “serial killer” to something better than that. Maybe 50 should be that cap, but I’m in no place to make that decision. In the last article I talked about other historic dicks like Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory, who killed upwards of 100-200 victims. Gilles (you don’t mind if I call you that, do you? Oh wait, you’re dead. Sucker.) killed anywhere between 80 to 200 children over a span of five years. That means this guy was busy.

Not only did this guy take the lives of potentially hundreds of children, he also liked sodomizing them. In a 1971 biography of Gilles de Rais, Jean Benedetti described how the children were murdered: “[The boy] was pampered and dressed in better clothes than he had ever known. The evening began with a large meal and heavy drinking, particularly hippocras, which acted as a stimulant. The boy was then taken to an upper room to which only Gilles and his immediate circle were admitted. There he was confronted with the true nature of his situation. The shock thus produced on the boy was an initial source of pleasure for Gilles.”

Not enough? During Gilles confession he testified that “when the children were dead [Gilles] kissed them, and those who had the most handsome limbs and heads he held up to admire them. He had their bodies cruelly cut open and took delight at the sight of their inner organs and took delight at the sight of their inner organs.” I could continue, but really, what’s the point?

Now that you’ve wiped the vomit from your keyboard, let’s continue! But be warned, if your’e a vampire, this place is going to fucking terrify you. in northern Lithuania there’s a hill, and this hill is the site of a pilgrimage where people have been leaving crucifixes since the early 1830’s. Since then over 100,000 crosses have been placed at the site.

Now, before you ask, no, nothing bad has happened here. Err, something bad could’ve happened here, like someone tripped and cut their knee up a bit, but nothing worth documenting. To me, this place is just creepy. The hill’s become a pincushion of crosses of varying sizes. If you ever find yourself in an ‘I Am Legend’ sort of scenario I highly suggest running over to Lithuania.

Ok, so that last one might’ve been a breather of sorts to give you time to recollect yourself after Gilles de Rais, but by now I’m sure you’re back to 100% and foaming at the mouth for another goosebump-inducing, hair-raising locale. Well, how about this?

Are you a fan of dolls? Do you consider yourself to be a particularly tough individual? Rugged, as they say? I’m certain that no matter how tough you think you are, this island in Mexico is eerie enough to reduce even the burliest of individuals into a pile of tears and “I want my mommies!” I’ve listed places that were dangerous, others that were just confounding, but I haven’t really touched on truly unsettling, and that’s where the Isla de las Munecas comes in. Essentially, it’s an island filled with dolls. But these aren’t fresh outta the box Barbies or adorable Raggedy Anns, no sir, this island is the home of some of the dirtiest, creepiest dolls imaginable. The types of dolls you’d expect to find hiding under your bed late at night.