# Need new nightmare fuel. Let's plunder world mythology! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810 "2010-11-24T20:14:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/21 "2010-11-25T09:51:30Z")
Was reading over in the large dose of radiation thread … How about [the demon core](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core) ? Basic upshot is an inanimate object that directly caused 2 very nasty deaths … would be a great way to also use the image of the devils face in the mushroom cloud that I vaguely remember being passed around in emails maybe 10 years ago. Somehow a demon possessed the core that was in the bomb project. Be a great thing, maybe work in using the Spear of Longinus to fight it. Well, it would be different. Make use of all the Nazi occult meme stuff =) ---
**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:** [November 25, 2010, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/22 "2010-11-25T12:24:08Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > damn. red caps sound freakin terrifying. Ahem. > [@](#): > > These malevolent Goblins get their names from their habit of butchering humans and washing their headgear in the blood-spill. They are attracted to places that have a history of war and genocide and are most commonly found on the Scottish-English borders. Though the Redcaps have at times been invoked to do the foul bidding of Warlocks, they are content to slaughter on their own volition and neither human nor Fay should feel safe in their company. They carry monstrous weapons ideal for hacking up nocturnal travellers, particularly those sheltering from the elements amidst the ruins of old castles. > Associated to the Redcaps are the Powries (also known as Dunters). These intangible Phantoms tend to haunt the same or similar locales as the Redcaps, and although they are not brutal themselves they may be attracted by suffering and gore. It has been suggested that Redcaps and Powries may both be the restless souls of sacrificed people or animals that were buried in the castle foundations during construction. > **[Tricksters & Threats](http://www.batcow.co.uk/strangelands/tricksters.htm)** ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/23 "2010-11-25T22:44:13Z")
Angels haven’t gotten enough lovin’. I mean, you either have the good angel coming to help the humans, the neutral angel coming to help the humans, or very rarely an ugly demon former-angel. I want to see something like Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary or Yun Kouga’s Earthian - that there’s moral ambiguity amongst even God’s angels and that there’s an angelic society. They don’t just materialize out of thin air, they have their own lives. I know there’s characters like Castiel in Supernatural, or movies like that one with Paul Bettany playing an angel fighting fallen angels and protecting that pregnant chick. If [this](http://www.sivosten.com/gfx/broi3/40.jpg) is one of the good guys, then yes, you can imagine the nightmare fuel that exists in Hell. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/24 "2010-11-26T19:03:21Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > I say: strip-mine Japanese folklore. (heck, anime already did to everyone else, anyway.) [Obakemono](http://www.obakemono.com/), for example. Any of 'em. > > Even Anita Blake couldn’t make a [shirime](http://www.obakemono.com/obake/shirime/) into popular soft porn. Gegege No Kitaro and The Great Yokai War had some creepy moments. I know Blood Plus is about vampires but its definitely a more Japanese spin on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/25 "2010-11-26T20:10:44Z")
Wendigo? [Ravenous](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129332/). Scary angels? [Legion](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038686/). Personally, [Baba Yaga](http://www.oldrussia.net/baba.html) has always scared the pants off me. ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/26 "2010-11-26T20:38:59Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Personally, [Baba Yaga](http://www.oldrussia.net/baba.html) has always scared the pants off me. Orson Scott Card’s book [Enchantment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchantment_(novel)) featured Baba Yaga as its villain, although it wasn’t at all scary. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/27 "2010-11-26T20:57:18Z")
I’m surprised more isn’t done with the Nephilim: beautiful, angelic, horny as hell and already on God’s shite-list and in ancient mythologies responsible for a lot of really really bad half-breeds. Naamah is intriguing in that she’s a she-demon in some apocryphal stories who conceived Ashmedai/Asmodeus from a brief fling with Adam during his Lilith Faire days, but in others she’s a woman who became a demon when she gave birth to Ashmedai by a demonic father (sometimes Sammael, the serpent from Eden). No idea if it’s coincidental or not but Noah’s wife is traditionally said to have been named Naamah (sometimes Na’amah); to my knowledge it’s not the same woman but it would make it interesting if No’No’s wife was a she-devil. In any case the most horrifying aspect is that she and her son Ashmedai are said to travel together. What could be more horrifying than being immortal and still living with your mom? I always thought this would be a great character duo for BUFFY- Ashmedai (played by Stephen Root if you wanted Anglo or Community’s Danny Pudi [Abed] if you want East Asian) and the mother who’s been driving him nuts for 6000 years (Roseanne perhaps, or Whoopi Goldberg). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/28 "2010-11-26T21:03:55Z")
One thing I loved about The Blair Witch: she was pure evil. No ‘misunderstood’ or ‘can’t help the way she is but she wants to change’ or anything like the Vampire heroes- she’s a pure out and out child murdering witch. Some of the most nightmarish things ever to haunt me were the delusions of some of the schizophrenics I used to work with. While most schizoaffective types are fairly boring, some weave extremely detailed mythologies and dystopic universes, such as the one who believed that some people were being taken over by demons and the way to tell was by how they moved their eyes (my mother he thought was taken over by a particularly strong demon because ‘he even got her facial tic right’). He also made sacrifices to the Archangel Cadence, Keeper of Time; this was an uneducated redneck kid and I’ve looked through all manner of angelologies and occult encyclopedias- there’s no reference to Archangel Cadence. He spun it himself somewhere. I’ve mentioned before that I think a super-hero or super-villain could be made of a fictionalized retelling of the son of [Perotine Massey](http://mary-tudor.blogspot.com/2009/05/case-of-perotine-massey.html) (16th century Protestant and adulteress burned for witchcraft by Bloody Mary- she gave birth while being burned alive). The real babe was thrown into the flames, setting off 20 years of murder trials, but if he lived- call him Ignatius [born in fire] and make him somewhat pissed off about it- that could be cool. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/29 "2010-11-26T21:17:52Z")
I have been known to write fanfiction for a canon with lots of monsters, so I have done a lot of reading about this sort of thing. I recently wrote a story that included a [manananggal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manananggal), which has the bonus point of having an awesome name and being Filipino. (I did a major research project on development in the Philippines last year, and I went there to do part of it, so I am particularly fond of the Philippines.) It’s not global, but in poking around the internet looking for a good villain in a story I’m working on right now, I discovered a great resource: [Myths and Legends of Our Own Land](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6615/6615-h/6615-h.htm), a book from the late 1800s on Project Gutenberg. It notes down a bunch of ghost and horror stories specific to regions in the US, and it’s arranged in geographical order. Lots of cool stuff in there. I will be stalking this thread for further ideas, but I’ve seen a lot of the stuff mentioned so far already used in fics. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/30 "2010-11-26T21:23:10Z")
Banshees. I liked the Disc World take on them in Going Postal (the book, I don’t have high hopes for the movie) - in that book, they’re breed of flying, barely sane, hungry humanoids with incredibly strong arms, rows of nasty teeth and a fondness for eating every pigeon in sight. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/31 "2010-11-26T21:48:55Z")
An awful lot of cultures have were-animals. Not humans that turn into whatever, but human that really are animal and that only appear to be human sometimes. How’d you like to wake up and find that hottie you went to bed with is now a seal or bear or tiger? ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/32 "2010-11-26T21:51:51Z")
Poor, long-suffering Prometheus was bound to a rock and had his liver pecked out by a bird. Every. single. day. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/33 "2010-11-27T03:16:25Z")
I’m rather fond of the [Scorpion Men](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion_man), myself. (Not in that way) ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/34 "2010-11-27T12:22:06Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > An awful lot of cultures have were-animals. Not humans that turn into whatever, but human that really are animal and that only appear to be human sometimes. > > How’d you like to wake up and find that hottie you went to bed with is now a seal or bear or tiger? Cant count the number of times I’ve woken up to find a whale trapped in my bed. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/35 "2010-11-27T12:31:18Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Are there any ghoul movies, in the Arabic myth sense? Zombies are close enough, but not the same. Funny, when I read the OP, I immediately thought of Ghuls, always liked them, especially the way they’re depicted in Arab folktales. One of the best examples of Ghuls used would be in an episode of Tales from the Crypt (and in my opinion, one of the best I’ve ever seen, with the hero inquiring on a charity that attends to homeless people, and which is in fact run by ghouls; it’s called “Mournin’ Mess”, episode 34 season 3). ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/36 "2010-11-27T17:06:35Z")
The [Aswang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswang). A couple of shows that are good sources of obscure mythological monsters are _Supernatural_ and _Destination Truth_. I learned about the Aswang on _Destination Truth_. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/37 "2010-11-27T18:55:51Z")
I think there should be a wave of native american myth movies. Butcher did an admirable job with the Skinwalker. If that’s any indication of what NA folklore can be like then I want more. I also think that the whole tickster god thing hasn’t been played out. Those are my favorite antagonists. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/38 "2010-11-27T19:21:03Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > An awful lot of cultures have were-animals. Not humans that turn into whatever, but human that really are animal and that only appear to be human sometimes. > > How’d you like to wake up and find that hottie you went to bed with is now a seal or bear or tiger? There are probably a dozen romance and urban fantasy novels released every month that deal explicitly with that question. ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/4af34b/32.png) [@Umbriel2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel2)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/39 "2010-11-27T21:59:40Z")
My pick would be the Philippine [Berbalangs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbalang_%28legendary_creature%29). There’s a lot of overlap in the monster/demon folklore of the Philippines/Indonesia/Southeast Asia, so they bear similarities to the Aswang and the Penanggalan/Manananggal, but their distinctive “contrary physics” element seems highly cinematic to me – hearing them in front of you, while they sneak up behind, or the tension as you hear their moaning slowly fading away, which means they’re actually getting closer! I first read about them in some old comic book compilation in the '70s, which claimed that the guy who had first brought tales of them to the West had warned in lectures that an invasion by them was imminent, selling “coconut pearls” to the attendees, until his mysterious disappearance. I think that was a pure embellishment, as [Rupert Gould](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Gould) doesn’t seem to have met with a mysterious end, and I don’t think his source, the wonderfully-named Ethelbert Forbes Skertchley, ever became a public figure, but again, its great pulp novel/movie fodder. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810/40 "2010-11-27T22:34:19Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > [Penanggalan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penanggalan). > > > [@](#): > > > > According to the folklore of that region, the Penanggalan is a detached female head that is capable of flying about on its own. As it flies, the stomach and entrails dangle below it, and these organs twinkle like fireflies as the Penanggalan moves through the night. Too much like Zardoz. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-new-nightmare-fuel-lets-plunder-world-mythology/561810.md?page=3)