# Scariest supernatural baddie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2003, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823 "2003-01-25T05:14:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/41 "2003-01-26T03:31:06Z")
**FriarTed** : That stuff about Shekinah is interesting . . . now I know what I’m going to be looking up tomorrow instead of philosophy, Greek lit, and American government. If I flunk something Monday, it’ll be \*\*\*All Your Fault! \*\*\* 🙂 Regarding the spoiler box: Just type {spoiler} in front of what you want to black out and {/spoiler} at the end, only use [brackets] instead of {these things}. ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/42 "2003-01-26T03:33:22Z")
The aswang is seriously creepy, a filipino vampire who feeds on the blood of unborn children through its long, hollow tongue. EEK! ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/43 "2003-01-26T06:15:41Z")
For me it was always the small monsters that creeped me out more than the big ones. Like gremlins or this baby with claws and fangs. the damn little critters are always strong for their size, quick, hard to spot, mean, and hungry. The damn things could pop up ANYWHERE from behind a desk or under the bed and they always come swarming and nibble you to death with their little nasty teeth and can vanish into an air vent or something in seconds. Its’ hard to fight something so much shorter than you hand to hand as well. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/44 "2003-01-26T07:31:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Meatros \* > \*\*The Springheeled Jack. That one gave me the willies and the freaky jeebies for a long time… \*\* Argh! Thanks for reminding me. Now I keep thinking of the drawing of him in the book called ( I think) Amazing Stories. Creeps me out. Anyone remember the old tv movie called Trilogy of Terror? The story about the voodoo doll that came to life and tried to kill the lady that owned it? I looked under my couch and bed for weeks after seeing that movie. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/45 "2003-01-26T07:32:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terrifel \* > \*\*I have to say that I always found the idea of werewolves to be profoundly disturbing. It seems to me that the true horror of the lycanthrope is not being attacked by one, but actually _becoming_ one. Other supernatural forces can only haunt or kill you; the werewolf, on the other hand, destroys your identity and replaces it with something bestial. \*\* Granted, one could say the same about vampires or zombies. Of course, those have to actually kill you first. Werewolves work with those who survive. Though some schools of thought go with more of bringing out the beast one already has, so to speak. Be that the Freudian ID(The term for the selfish, more primitive form of the subconcious mind) or the darwinan pre-human self (According to evolution, go back far enough in your family history and there is a furry beast), so it would be more of Reverting. If nothing else, they are the most interesting from the phycological viewpoint. Kinda a different version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a spilt personality where the other personality looks a bit different then you would. Of course, one could wonder how to wolf feels, waking up in a strange place and not knowing how it got there, and if it wouldn’t feel digusted if it knew it was rather defenseless(by it’s standards) most of the time. “If you wake up in a different place at a different time, are you a different person?” “Had I really been sleeping longer? Had I really been going to be bed earlier? Had I been him longer and longer?” ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/46 "2003-01-26T08:41:59Z")
I’m thinking some people are confusing Spring Heeled Jack with The Jersey Devil. I believe it was the Jersey Devil that left the cloven hoofprints… supposedly even burned into solid surfaces. ---
**Author:** ![AbsolutelyStark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@AbsolutelyStark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbsolutelyStark)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/47 "2003-01-26T10:28:16Z")
I’m more scared of when you think you know someone and you’re just sitting there talking to them, then they suddenly jump on you and rip your face off with their teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/48 "2003-01-26T16:05:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Though some schools of thought go with more of bringing out the beast one already has, so to speak. Be that the Freudian ID(The term for the selfish, more primitive form of the subconcious mind) or the darwinan pre-human self (According to evolution, go back far enough in your family history and there is a furry beast), so it would be more of Reverting. Yes, exactly. The werewolf doesn’t _compel_ violent or animalistic behavior, rather it disables your inhibitions for such behavior, and provides a form in which acting on such impulses is natural. So the Jekyll/Hyde story would certainly qualify, in my opinion. Being a werewolf would probably not be nearly so bad if you retained your human mind and memory. Or, then again, maybe it would. You’d still be pretty well hosed, in that you couldn’t really talk or drive, and you’d probably end up in the zoo or something. Plus the change would probably still hurt like hell. Vampires and zombies don’t really transform their victims in quite the same way. Zombies never seem really conscious of their actions, whereas vampires (at least in contemporary folklore) have too much going for them. Immortal, glamorous, powerful, snappy dressers…how do I get in on that action? Yes, bite me, please! Now the traditional vampire, who was more of a loser in that he had to live in his grave and was compelled to attack his friends and family, was something that you wouldn’t want to have happen to you. They don’t make movies about him. I don’t find the idea of ghosts too disturbing; the idea of retaining consciousness after death is actually kind of a plus if you can still exert your will to exact vengeance from beyond the grave. Now, specific ghost stories, on the other hand, can give me the willies if they’re well told. I have to join in with praise for _The Haunting of Hill House_, one of the great examples of the genre. “_God, God…whose hand was I holding?_” Much of Algernon Blackwood’s short fiction is also worth a shudder. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/49 "2003-01-26T16:14:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hup the Fool \* > \*\*Argh! Thanks for reminding me. Now I keep thinking of the drawing of him in the book called ( I think) Amazing Stories. Creeps me out. > > Anyone remember the old tv movie called Trilogy of Terror? The story about the voodoo doll that came to life and tried to kill the lady that owned it? I looked under my couch and bed for weeks after seeing that movie. \*\* OMG!!! I HAD AMAZING STORIES AS WELL! It was a little bluish green book wasn’t it? It had a whole bunch of “supernatural” stories in it: Including “Phantom hands”, Anaconda’s, and demon dogs, right? Incidently, I’ve never seen “Trilogy of Terror”, but my fiance has and she was totally creeped out by the little voodoo doll story. She said that it creeped her out for years. Up until the day she caught it on cable about a year ago. Looking back she was embarrassed that she was so scared of it. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823/50 "2003-01-26T16:18:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lokij \* > \*\*I’m thinking some people are confusing Spring Heeled Jack with The Jersey Devil. I believe it was the Jersey Devil that left the cloven hoofprints… supposedly even burned into solid surfaces. \*\* Possibly, but I think the incident that is being referred to with the “cloven foot prints” refers to neither the Jersey Devil, nor The Spring Heeled Jack. Here’s a good site for this sort of stuff, I have it linked on “the devils footprints”. [http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/fortean/devils\_foot.html](http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/fortean/devils_foot.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-supernatural-baddie/150823.md?page=2)