Editorials
10 Terrifying Folklore Creatures From Around the World
When it comes to monsters in horror, there is usually some kind of background or urban legend surrounding the creatures that has its base in real world tales. Movies about Bigfoot didn’t invent the creature. Rather, it was the other way around. The story of Bigfoot roaming the countryside has long fascinated people, so it only made sense to have films about such a creature.
While the films often do a good job of portraying the strange creature we’re being made aware of, oftentimes it is the real story that is far more unsettling and eerie. That’s why I ventured into the world of folklore monsters and I found 10 examples that I think are perfect for the horror audience!
Check them out below and then let me know in the comments about some of the creatures from your neck of the woods!
Nykur – Iceland
Thrándur Thorarinsson (Source)
A shapeshifting creature that most often took the form of a strangely shaped horse, the Nykur’s method of dispatching its victims was to lure them into mounting it, whereupon it would ride into a lake and drown its unfortunate rider. To defend yourself, you had to yell its name or make the sign of a cross over its rear. The former would send the creature back into the water (sans the rider) while the latter would allow it to be ridden like a normal horse.
A local superstition is that the Nykur is also associated with ice, particularly the sound of it cracking on a lake. When these cracks would appear, the accompanied sound would be said to be the neighing of the Nykur, according to Orkneyjar.
Wendigo – Canada
Hydrallon (Source)
A staple of the beliefs of Algonquin-speaking peoples, the Wendigo is a creature that is humanoid yet monstrous in appearance. It is the embodiment of greed and voracious appetite as it is always on the hunt for more to eat, delighting in its taste for human flesh. Perfect for this time of the year, the Wendigo is often associated with winter and the cold. It looks like it is decaying and it is said that what lips it has are tattered, desiccated, and peeled back.
To defeat a Wendigo, there are three suggested methods. The first requires fire, as it will melt the creature’s icy heart. The second states that you must use a large amount of silver to purify the creature. This can be done with bullets, much like with a werewolf. The final method comes from an Ojibwe tale where a hunter simply stabbed the Wendigo in the head multiple times to kill it. Sounds like the third option is what most of us would have to fall back upon should we find ourselves face-to-face with a Wendigo.
Manananggal – Phillipines
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The first of two creatures on this list from the Phillipines, the Manananggal is a blood-sucking witch-like creature that has a penchant for tearing itself in half at the abdomen, flying into the night in search of sleeping pregnant women, and then using a tongue-like proboscis to eat the hearts of their fetuses. To defend yourself from such a creature, you can use daggers, sunlight, or a buntot pagi (a whip that is made from the tail of a stingray).
Additionally, if you can smear the upper torso with garlic, salt, or ash, then it will be unable to rejoin with its lower half and will be vanquished by the sunrise.
Mylings – Sweden
Max Magnus (Source)
This Scandinavian creature is as tragic as it is haunting. The Mylings are the souls of unbaptized children who are unable to move on after their death. They are forced to roam the world in an attempt to find someone who will bury them in a graveyard, allowing their spirit the opportunity to move on. However, this is not easy for the one that becomes burdened with this task.
What happens is that a Myling will jump on the back of a traveler during the night, demanding that the wanderer carry them to the closest graveyard. Although the Myling are children, their spirits are said to be large and heavy. Each step towards the graveyard sees them grow heavier, to the point that the person carrying them could very well sink into the ground. And should the wanderer fail to take another step, the Myling becomes enraged and will kill the wanderer only to roam the countryside looking for another unfortunate soul.
Black Annis – Leicestershire, England
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If you’ve seen the Ridley Scott fantasy film Legend, then just imagine Meg Mucklebones and you’ll have a good idea what Black Annis (also known as Black Angus) looks like. Described as a witchy crone, she has blue skin and iron nails and a fondness for eating children. She lives in a cave in Dane Hills in Leicestershire, which she is purported to have carved herself with her clawed hands.
Her joy comes from wandering the local countryside and finding unsuspecting children or lambs, slaughtering them, and tanning their skins, which she wears around her waist. To this day, she is a warning from parents to children. “If you misbehave, Black Annis will get you in the night!”
Bukavac – Slavic Region
Phantos (Source)
Much like the Icelandic Nykur, the Bukavac lives in the water of lakes and rivers. Described as a six-legged beast with large, twisted horns, it leaps from the water onto anything living and strangled them to death. The Pathfinder RPG states that they have a massive roar that can stun its intended meal. Additionally, they describe it as a large creature that is 11-ft long and can weight two tons.
Chupacabra – Central and South America
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First spotted in Puerto Rico, the Chupacabra has become an urban legend of epic proportion in a relatively short time. First spotted in 1995, it has since been seen through Central and South America as well as various parts of the United States, although more so in the Southwest. It doesn’t attack people, preferring instead to drain livestock of every drop of blood via three punctures to the chest. As with every urban legend, no actual evidence has been found but there are theories that what people are seeing are canids that have been afflicted with mange.
An interesting tidbit is that the original interpretation of what a Chupacabra looks like was based on Sil from Species. In August of 1995, Madelyne Tolentino stated that she saw the creature and that she believed it to be the Giger-designed alien. She even stated in her report to the police, “It was a creature that looked like the chupacabra, with spines on its back and all… The resemblance to the chupacabra was really impressive. [Source]”
Loch Ness Monster – Scotland
Perhaps the most famous of all folklore monsters, Nessie is said to live in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, not far from Inverness. Her rise to popularity came in the early 20th century and since then people have been flocking to those waters to see if they can get real, provable evidence that such a creature does in fact exist.
Described as a sea serpent, Nessie is thought to be over 20 ft. long and can bring her head, which is said to be rather small, up to 4 ft. out of the water. Throughout the years, there has been no photograph, video, or recording of the Loch Ness Monster that has been enough to confirm its existence. However, that hasn’t stopped anyone from looking. Instead, it has only fueled the fire and any new photograph sparks interest and intrigue.
Jersey Devil – New Jersey, United States
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The Jersey Devil has a rather interesting origin story, one that involves the Devil himself. Back in the early/mid-18th century, Mother Leeds (thought to be Deborah Leeds), a supposed witch, found out that she was pregnant with a 13th child. Convinced that this 13th child was the son of the Devil, she bore him only to find that he was normal in all respects. However, he quickly turned into a hooved beast with wings. He killed the midwife and flew out the chimney, vanishing into the nearby woods.
The Jersey Devil mostly kills livestock and farm animals, although it is known to sometimes kill children. The remains of these animals are found scattered about. Furthermore, it supposedly has the ability to dry up a cow’s milk by simply breathing on it.
The Jersey Devil hoax has such a following that in the early 60’s, the merchants of Camden, NJ offered a $10,000 reward for the creature, stating that they would build a zoo enclosure for it. That reward is still unclaimed.
Aswang – Phillipines
Ubermonster (Source)
Similar in some ways to the Manananggal, the Aswang differs in a few ways. For example, it is a shapeshifter that lives during the day as a citizen of the town where it commits its atrocities. Often mild-mannered and meek, the Aswang can often make friends with its neighbors, who have no idea what kind of creature they are dealing with. And while they also enjoy the hearts (and livers) of unborn fetuses and infants, they are known to replace their victims with makeshift dolls, almost like they are covering their tracks. While each Aswang description varies, there are those who say that some are so thing that they can hide themselves behind a bamboo tree and not be noticed.
As mentioned before, the Aswang can become friendly with those around it. And should it end up marrying a human, their mate will turn into an Aswang.
Found footage movies rely on immersion and a particular kind of suspension of disbelief in order to scare viewers, so it stands to reason that playing along with the “kayfabe” of it all is necessary for these movies to be effective. However, despite being something of a purist when it comes to in-universe recordings, I’ve come to accept that traditional productions can benefit from the occasional injection of found footage thrills.
For instance, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation makes genius use of the analog gimmick in order to trap us in the titular rooms alongside our main characters before effortlessly switching back to a more cinematic language. In honor of these dynamic films that manage to combine the best of both worlds, today I’d like to share six other hybrid horror movies that successfully incorporate found footage into their scares!
For the purposes of this list, “hybrid” horror movies are defined as any flick that shifts between diegetic recordings and traditional filming techniques for a significant amount of time (or at least for pivotal scenes).
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own hybrid favorites if you think a particularly freaky one was missed.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Internet critics may have overstated the influence that Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast had on The Blair Witch Project, but the found footage subgenre still owes a huge debt to this underrated piece of avant-garde filmmaking. However, while the movie sets itself up as a documentary about the disappearance of a group of cryptid-hunters attempting to track down the Jersey Devil, things take a darker and much more grounded turn towards the final act.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the jarring shift in perspective actually helps to sell the idea that everything we’ve seen before the finale was an attempt at using filmmaking to manipulate the public perception of a “real” incident.
Not bad for a movie with a $900 budget!
4. Cam (2018)
When you consider just how much the internet affects our daily lives, it’s strange that we don’t see Screenlife elements pop up in more movies these days. For instance, Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber’s highly underrated Cam only works as a freaky parable about online sex-work because it masterfully balances Madeline Brewer’s intimate moments with highly immersive segments within cyberspace.
While one might argue that the entire film could have been produced as a Screenlife experience, the hybrid approach allows the filmmakers to explore our main character’s life beyond the screens – with the duality of modern human existence actually becoming a recurring theme in the story.
3. Banshee Chapter (2013)
Most of H.P. Lovecraft’s popular stories were told in the epistolary format (where the text is presented as an in-universe compilation of letters or personal notes), so it makes sense that a spiritually faithful adaptation of his work would incorporate elements from the modern-day equivalent to epistolary fiction – found footage!
That’s why Blair Erickson’s Banshee Chapter is such an effective scare-fest, as this hybrid adaptation of From Beyond -retold through a conspiratorial lens as it references MK-Ultra and even secretive numbers stations- immerses viewers in a mind-bending tapestry of Cosmic Horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
2. The Deep House (2019)
The underwater setting does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Deep House, with the film being especially uncomfortable if you’re already scared of tight spaces and being deprived of oxygen. However, even the universally unsettling elements of the flick only work because the POV often shifts into claustrophobic footage courtesy of our main characters’ GoPro cameras.
Telling the story of a couple of YouTubers who encounter a haunted house at the bottom of an artificial lake while vacationing in France, The Deep House’s first-person exploration sequences contain some of the film’s scariest moments. In fact, I’d argue that the movie didn’t even need ghosts, as becoming trapped in the titular House already sounds like a fate worse than death.
1. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
My personal favorite instance of filmmakers successfully managing to combine traditional cinematography with POV filmmaking, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is proof that the two formats can co-exist if the right story comes along.
After all, what better way to conclude a mockumentary all about reality getting increasingly more cinematic than by ditching the found footage gimmick altogether during the finale? Not only does this shift in presentation work on a conceptual level, but it also elevates Behind The Mask into a proper Slasher, which is probably why we’re so excited for that long-overdue sequel!
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