We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the creepiest urban legends they knew. Here are the bone-chilling responses:
1. Soul Snatchers of Bangladesh:
"In Bangladesh there is a story that during funeral processions, evil spirits that have sold themselves to the devil try to snatch the soul of the deceased and drag them to hell. The more people you have during processions the better because you literally have to fight, struggle, and work very hard to hold onto the coffin. So much so that some people find themselves extremely fatigued and have to give up and then other pallbearers take over."
2. The Haunted Tomb at Greyfriars Kirkyard:
In the late '90s a homeless man in Edinburgh sought shelter from a storm in a black mausoleum in Greyfriars Kirkyard. Once inside, he realized there might be items of value in the wooden coffins, and began smashing them open in search of treasure. Suddenly he fell through the floor into an underground chamber only to land in the stinking soup of rotting human bodies. He had inadvertently discovered a pit where victims of the plague had been tossed unceremoniously. The coffin he had disturbed right before falling through the floor? It belonged to a notorious rebel named Lord Advocate Sir George Mackenzie who was responsible for the deaths of over 18,000 of his countrymen, some of which lay in that very pit beneath his grave.
Now when people visit the cemetery they report feelings of unrest, cold winds, choking sensations, fainting, burns, gouges, cuts, and bruises. There have been over 500 cases of unexplained injuries.
—Suggested by dshea77
3. Spooklight:
"I live near the site of the Spooklight, which is a light that appears in a small area known locally as the Devil's Promenade on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma. The Spooklight is reported to be the shining lamp of an Native American chief searching for his missing head. Apparently, back in the 1980s or '90s, a pair of teenage sisters took a pumpkin and drew a smiley face on it before leaving it out on the road where the Spooklight can be spotted. They went home immediately after and went to bed. When they woke up the next day, the pumpkin was on their kitchen table, but instead of a smile, it was scowling. Creepy."
4. The Maryland Goatman:
In Beltsville, Maryland, a scientist at the Agricultural Research Center was experimenting on goats when the procedure backfired. Once the smoke cleared, the scientist had become a mutated, half-goat half-man monster. Legend says the creature roams the backroads of Beltsville with an axe, attacking cars and wrecking havoc.
—Suggested by carissah4d3b2c882
5. La Llorona:
"La LLorona, or 'The Weeping Woman' is the story of a poor Mexican woman who married a rich Spaniard. After they had children, the Spaniard started losing interest in his wife and was embarrassed to be married to a woman without prestige. In a rage, the woman took all of her children to the river and drowned them thinking that would appease the Spaniard. Instantly she was hit with regret. She started screaming 'Mis hijos, mis hijos,' which means 'My children, my children.' People say that to this day, La Llorona wanders near river banks looking for her children. If La Llorona finds any children near the river alone, she lures them to the water, and drowns them."
6. Crescent Hotel:
Guests of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas have claimed to notice ghostly activity during their stay. Among the more famous ghosts are Michael, a construction worker who fell to his death while building the hotel and Theodora, a cancer patient from when the building was run as a bogus hospital.
—Suggested by 12345m
7. The Rake:
In New York there is a creature called The Rake who stalks suburban areas at night. The Rake is a grey-skinned half-human half-dog creature that walks with a ruined, mangled posture almost like it had been hit by a car. Anyone who looks into its black, soulless eyes becomes its victim. It waits at the foot of a person's bed, and when they wake up and make eye contact, it attacks.
—Suggested by kourtneyb42881869c
8. Loveland Frogmen:
In 1955 a salesman was traveling down an old road near Loveland, Ohio at 3:30 in the morning when he spotted three humanoid reptilian beings near the guardrail. He stopped to observe them and noticed they closely resembled frogs, except for the fact that they were nearly 4 feet tall. Right when he was about to leave, one of the creatures raised its hand above its head and waved what looked like a sparkling wand. The man drove away, spooked. There have been multiple sightings of these beings since 1955.
—Suggested by linds519831
9. The Fresno Night Crawlers
"In my home town of Fresno, California we have these things called the Fresno Night Crawlers. They are Golem-like things that look like a pair of legs with a face in the crotch. They come out at night but ONLY on federal buildings and spaces to terrorize people walking through. They are rumored to be about seven to eleven feet tall."
10. Flatwoods Monster:
In 1952, a couple of kids in Flatwoods, Virginia saw a bright light streak across the sky and tracked it to a field full of a mysterious, pungent mist. Near the edge of the field they spotted a seven foot tall, black-bodied, red-eyed monster, who bluff-charged at them screeching until the group ran off. The kids suffered throat burning, soar muscles, convulsions, and vomiting from ingesting the mist. Legend says the alien-like creature is still trapped in the woods somewhere, trying to get home.
—Suggested by emmag43ad4604f
11. The Jakartan Call Girl:
"There was a call girl who got murdered in Jakarta, Indonesia: Somebody slashed her face and choked her to death. After she died, her phone number remained active. You can still call the number and you will hear her pick up the phone. After a couple minute conversation, she will ask you if you want to meet her. If you say yes, she will ask you to turn your head and look at the window. When you look at the window, you will see her ruined face looking at you, smiling."
12. The Clown Statue:
"The WORST story I have ever heard is the one of the babysitter and the statue. I believe it goes something like this:
A girl was babysitting one night. Upon entering the house, she immediately noticed a clown statue. It creeped her out; the eyes always seemed to follow her as she passed, but she tried to ignore it. After the children had gone to bed, she called the parents and asked if she could perhaps put a blanket over the clown because it was starting to really give her goosebumps.
'We don't have a clown statue,' the mother says, frightened.
NO THANK YOU."
13. The Legend of Gryla:
In the hills of Iceland there lives a giant troll with hooves for feet and thirteen tails named Gryla. Every Christmas, Gryla comes down from her mountain cave to hunt for naughty children. Once she brings her bounty back to the cave, she boils the children alive in a stew and eats them for supper.
—Suggested by dieterace
14. The Ghost Children of Munger Road:
"There's a road in Wayne, Illinois called Munger Road that's supposed to be haunted. The legend goes that a school bus stalled on tracks and was struck by the train, killing all the children. Now people will go park on the tracks and put baby powder on their bumpers because the ghost-kids will leave fingerprints as they try and push your car off the tracks."
15. Stull Cemetery:
Once a year, on Halloween night, the devil rises from hell through a portal in a small town cemetery in Stull, Kansas. The area is so haunted that many say the Pope won't fly directly over it. A large gnarled tree in the cemetery is said to have been a "hanging-tree" for witches and a grave marked with the name Wittich may house the bones of Satan's own child. There's also an old church, the site of the portal, without a roof that stays bone dry even in the driving rain.
—Suggested by chanesselw
16. Winding Stairs:
"There's a winding road in the middle of nowhere near my town called the Winding Stairs, which has ties to the KKK and satanic worship. After several years of black magic and satanic rituals, the woods around the road started to get pretty haunted and creepy. People say if you drive out there and turn off the car, demons will either push the car or try to get in. You can see lights moving in the woods and hear strange sounds. The county even put a sign up that the road is closed a few years ago and never took it down because they don't want people to mess around with it. Spooky!"
17. The Bunnyman
In 1904, police in Clifton, Virginia spent weeks searching for two dangerous men who escaped from an asylum when a bus transporting them to a new location crashed in the woods. Strangely, during their search, police kept finding skinned and half-eaten rabbit carcasses strung up from the trees. Eventually they found one of the two men dead and hanging from an underpass, gutted and skinned like the rabbits.
Concerned, police increase their efforts to find the remaining man, who they started calling the Bunnyman. Eventually they located him and chased him to the underpass, where he was struck by a train and killed. Now every Halloween, rabbit carcasses appear in the trees surrounding the underpass. The scariest part? The Bunnyman was originally institutionalized for murdering his parents on Easter Sunday.
—Suggested by emilyclairef
18. The Haunted Chair At Zalud House:
"In Porterville, California, we have the Zalud House, a historic residence with a haunted chair. If you sit on it, you feel pains in your chest. Legend says a guy got shot and killed in that chair many years ago, when the house was just built."
19. The Dogman of Michigan
Every ten years, a seven foot tall creature with a man's body and a dog's head emerges from the woods in the Northwest quadrant of Michigan. It was first seen by two lumberjacks in 1887, who chased it into a hollowed out log until it let out a human-like screech, causing the men to flee in terror. Since then, there have been countless sightings of the beast.
—Suggested by m48821007f
20. The Haunted High School:
"My two oldest brothers went to Mariner High School in Everett, Washington and both claim the school is haunted. At midnight on some nights, all of the lights in the building shut off, and you can see pairs of eyes through the windows. Some claim if you stare at the eyes long enough you can make out a figure of a winged man."
21. The Mist On Cuba Road:
"Cuba Road In the northwest suburbs of Chicago is a road that leads through two towns and it's definitely haunted. Everyone who drives down the road sees this mist, and if you drive with the windows down and roll them up again you'll see handprints on the glass."
22. Black Aggie
"In Baltimore there is a statue in Druid Ridge Cemetery, titled Grief, but we call her Black Aggie. Rumors say that no grass will grow in her shadow, pregnant women who pass by her will suffer miscarriages, and her eyes glow red at night. One college student is said to have died of fright at her feet. The statue is quite beautiful and considered one the most powerful and expressive piece of American Art."