# Creepiest cryptid **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 17, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774 "2014-09-17T22:56:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/1 "2014-09-17T22:56:35Z")
A cryptid being a creature or being whose existence has not been proven, but nevertheless crops up in mythology and folktales. My favourite is [Bigfoot](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Smalfut.jpg), he just looks so cuddly, like a cereal mascot or something. Others are creepy as fuck. For my money, the Japanese cornered the market on this, the [hitotsume-kozō](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitotsume-koz%C5%8D) is a one-eyed child ghost. If I saw it in reality I would shit myself. From Inuit mythology, there’s the [Qalupalik](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410f%2Byyw6FL._SL500_AA300_.jpg), a sea-dwelling humanoid that [abducts children](http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/336/0/e/qalupalik_2_by_joy_ang-d4hyivx.jpg) that stray too close to the shore. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/2 "2014-09-17T23:15:27Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Others are creepy as fuck. For my money, the Japanese cornered the market on this, the [hitotsume-kozō](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitotsume-koz%C5%8D) is a one-eyed child ghost. If I saw it in reality I would shit myself. ::reading about hitotsume-kozō:: Dang! Wikipedia’s description made me remember an [old Japanese cartoon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyGvGMa2RFg) I’ve watched on youtube. At one point (about 4:50), one of the characters in this eerie old Fleischer-like cartoon turns into a creepy one-eyed, one-legged boy. I thought it was some artist’s fever-dream, but now I see that they were depicting a legendary creature. Now I have to watch the cartoon again. Thanks for the link! ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/3 "2014-09-18T00:41:12Z")
I think for a new-cryptid-on-the-block, the [Slenderman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man)is pretty darn creepy. ---
**Author:** ![callander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@callander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/callander)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/4 "2014-09-18T00:45:45Z")
This could be a great thread, creepiness and all. ---
**Author:** ![callander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@callander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/callander)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/5 "2014-09-18T01:37:34Z")
the giant squid > **[Top 10 Cryptids That Turned Out to be Real - Listverse](https://listverse.com/2010/08/13/top-10-cryptids-that-turned-out-to-be-real/)** > > Cryptozoology, the study of “hidden animals”, concerns itself with animals whose existence has not yet been recognized by mainstream science. These animals, known as “cryptids”, are often the stuff of legends, written off as myths or elaborate... ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/6 "2014-09-18T02:08:20Z")
The [Chupacabra](http://www.virtuescience.com/el-chupacabras.jpg) is pretty damn creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/7 "2014-09-18T02:58:38Z")
I hate to be a finagler, but are demons and ghosts and supernatural entities “cryptids.” I thought the term was limited to things that might occur in nature, and simply be elusive. Bigfoot is just a large, stinky, macropedal anthropoid, and even Chupacabra might just be a quick, hungry animal with lots of sharp teeth, nnnh, nnnh. For instance, the “Hidebehind” is not a natural animal, because it has the supernatural power always to be behind you, no matter which way you’re facing. He’s on my list of pretty darn creepy folkloric critters. Giant man-eating plants – Audrey II! – are really creepy! Man-eating swarms of army ants are creepy. The reality is pretty bad, but the fantasy versions are a whole lot worse. Giant spiders… Oh, gosh, it’s just going eight; time for me to go! (Whew!) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/8 "2014-09-18T13:36:50Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I hate to be a finagler, but are demons and ghosts and supernatural entities “cryptids.” I thought the term was limited to things that might occur in nature, and simply be elusive. Bigfoot is just a large, stinky, macropedal anthropoid, and even Chupacabra might just be a quick, hungry animal with lots of sharp teeth, nnnh, nnnh. True, they run the gamut from plausible to obvious bullshit, for our purposes we’ll include supernatural and mythological though. Another one that gives me the jibblies; [the Dover Demon](http://www.theironskeptic.com/articles/dover/dover.htm). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/9 "2014-09-18T14:02:33Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Giant man-eating plants – Audrey II! – are really creepy! Hey! ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/10 "2014-09-18T20:40:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The [Chupacabra](http://www.virtuescience.com/el-chupacabras.jpg) is pretty damn creepy. Seconded. Can you imagine the impact to the SDMB initiation ceremony if all the goats were drained of there blood? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/11 "2014-09-18T21:57:05Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Hey! Um…er… I taste bad! Really really bad! I’ll give you aphids! I mean… Er… (RUNS AWAY real fast.) ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/12 "2014-09-19T05:24:23Z")
I’ve always found Aboriginal Australian creatures particularly creepy, like the [Yara-ma-yha-who](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yara-ma-yha-who) and the [Bunyip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip). In particular the modus operandi of the Yara-ma-yha-who gives me the jibblies. I guess if the real animals in your country are already terrifying and deadly, the make believe ones have to really pull out all the stops in the creepy factor. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/13 "2014-09-19T09:24:51Z")
Choosing to stick with putatively flesh-and-blood creatures, as opposed to the supernatural realm (though the dividing-line can sometimes be blurred): a cryptid which has always thrillingly creeped me out, is east Africa’s Nandi Bear – the beast has numerous local names, the most prominent being _chemosit_. Its heyday would seem to have been around a hundred-plus years ago, in the earlier times of settlement by Europeans in that part of the world. Whatever the creature might have been, it seemed elusive, secretive, and a frequent and savage killer – its speciality being, eating the brains of its victims (animal or – frequently – human): smashing the skull or tearing off the top of the head, to accomplish this. There were a great variety of physical descriptions of this animal, apparently somewhat split along racial lines. Africans tended to describe it as a huge and ferocious ape – something of a “yeti / Bigfoot” touch. Europeans who believed or suspected that they had encountered it, were apt rather to liken it to a huge hyena, a large baboon, or (wait for it) a bear. The great uncertainty as to what manner of creature it might be, intensified the general mystery and spookiness. A theory which I’m particularly fond of, suggested as the Nandi Bear’s identity, a small relict population of the prehistoric mammal Chalicotherium: reckoned to have lived in the period between about five, and fifteen, million years ago – an ungulate, but with clawed feet, looking something like “a hyena the size of a horse”. Being a herbivore does not necessarily equate to being peaceable and no danger to humans: witness, for example, the hippo and the African buffalo. It appears to be agreed, even among ardent cryptozoological believers, that the Nandi Bear seems to have faded away, for good: apparently no reports of it for a good many decades, from the parts of Africa where it was said to obtain. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/14 "2014-09-19T11:23:38Z")
[Black-Eyed Kids](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Eyed_Children). > [@](#): > > The children often wear black “hoodies” that are zipped up all the way with the hoods pulled completely onto their heads. But they are most consistently reported to be clad in plain dark garments whilst occasionally showing up shoeless. The children seem to give off an eerie aura of menace merely by their very presence. Witnesses report feelings of fear, anguish and despair when approached. The children are described as being mostly devoid of personality and even robotic in their behavior. They are sometimes allegedly perceived to be floating or hovering just a few inches above the ground. Other accounts endow them with superhuman speed because of their reported ability to appear on the road several miles ahead of a vehicle that had previously passed them by. Witnesses have further claimed that they cannot enter into anyone’s personal space without express permission. Some reports have speculated on the presence of telepathic powers. And a small number of witnesses have reportedly met with terrible accidents on the heels of their encounters Eep.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/15 "2014-09-19T23:37:13Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > [Black-Eyed Kids](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Eyed_Children). One of my cousins babysits a little boy; she’s always putting his picture on Facebook. She doesn’t have a very good camera, and rarely uses a flash…that, combined with something about the color of his eyes, makes them almost always photograph as black. (The whites are visible though.) My addition to this list: [stick figure “aliens”](http://www.unknowncountry.com/out-there/out-there-favorites-stick-figure-alien-footage). It’s clearly some clever camera work, but that doesn’t make the footage any less unsettling. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/16 "2014-09-20T01:03:29Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > My addition to this list: [stick figure “aliens”](http://www.unknowncountry.com/out-there/out-there-favorites-stick-figure-alien-footage). It’s clearly some clever camera work, but that doesn’t make the footage any less unsettling. Oh, come on! How can anyone who walks like that possibly drive a space ship? ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/17 "2014-09-20T01:20:31Z")
When I was a kid and was sick with a fever I always had a recurring dream about stick figure people and although I don’t remember much about it I do remember it was always disturbing to me. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/18 "2014-09-20T01:34:21Z")
[The Jersey Devi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil)l is pretty creepy though also one of the silliest. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/19 "2014-09-20T02:05:36Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > [The Jersey Devi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil)l is pretty creepy though also one of the silliest. It looks like a giraffe with wings. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774/20 "2014-09-20T13:21:57Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > It looks like a giraffe with wings. True, the story is creepy the portrait is the really silly part. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-cryptid/698774.md?page=2)