All countries have their own hair-raising tales and there are many scary urban legends told around the world, which send a shiver down your spine.
So here we have tales of horror that fit perfectly within this very terrifying list of 10 scary urban legends around the world.
10. Old Green Eyes, USA
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Tennessee was an area of tension during the Civil War and one particularly bloody battle in the state was fought at Chickamauga. The Battlefield is now a national military park, however, if you are wandering around and think you spot a pair of green eyes peeping at you, it turns out you might not be crazy.
It seems that the voyeur is a Confederate soldier who met his end in the field. His body was never found, just his head and now all that remains is his glowing green eyes, constantly watching over the field and looking out for his body.
9. Fiery Serpents Lubac, Russia
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Some Russians believe that occasionally, a shooting star falling to Earth may actually be a Snake-Lubac, a demonic figure that resembles a giant snake.
Also known as the fiery serpent – due to its fiery descent to Earth in a huge ball of fire. After it lands and the dust settles, the Snake-Lubac takes on human form.
To be more specific, it takes on the form of a lost love that died to whomever it appears in front of. It chooses people who are desperate to see their partner one last time.
The Snake-Lubac then tricks the person into believing they never died – once the person is under its spell, it slowly convinces them to end their lives – a fate which many say is unavoidable.
8. Bloody Mary, England
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We’ve all tried it at least once, as we stood in front of a mirror in a dimly lit room, rhythmically chanting“ Bloody Mary” to summon a malevolent spirit, sometimes thought to be the ghost of 16th century Queen Mary.
Whom the apparition belonged to has changed over time and it’s said that the ritual dates back to when young women would walk up a flight of stairs backward, staring into a mirror with only the light of a candle lighting their face, in hopes of seeing the face of their future husband.
Sometimes, rather than seeing the face of their future beau, they’d glimpsed something more horrific, a scary face, which meant they’d die before marrying.
7. The Dungarvon Whooper, Canada
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This is a famous ghost story coming from New Brunswick and dating back to the late 19th century. According to legend, a young Irish cook called Ryan worked at a lumberjack camp.
While the other lumberjacks were out, the boss killed Ryan. When they returned, he told them Ryan got sick and died suddenly. They bury him some distance from the camp.
However, a loud whooping sound kept them awake. The whooping got so loud that they fled the camp, convinced it was Ryan’s vengeful ghost.
In the years since, many have reported the whooping that can be heard in the woods, as Ryan seeks vengeance on the living.
6. The Bell Witch, USA
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Summer 1817, Adams, Tennessee. John Bell, Sr. is working on his farm when he spots a peculiarity, a four-legged friend that doesn’t belong to the Bell family.
Upon inspection, he found the hound to be ethereal with the head of a rabbit – and that’s where the Bell family nightmare began.
The entity, thought to be the spirit of Kate Batts, an old woman John had cheated out of the land, started as a highly active poltergeist, pulling hair and slapping the Bell family and friends.
For three years, the witch terrorized the family until the mysterious poisoning of John Bell, Sr. The lore of the witch lives on today, her terror isolated to the Bell Witch Cave in the small town of Adams, Tennessee.
Truly one of the scariest American urban legends.
5. La Sayona, Venezuela
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You’ve just left the flat of your mistress, the new girl at the office with those irresistible doe eyes. Walking to your car, you notice a peculiar feminine figure sporting a flowing white dress.
She piques your interest, though you can’t see her face. As you pass her, she reaches out to you for a cigarette.
Letting curiosity get the best of you, you try and see her face, but when you do it’s La Sayona, the vengeful spirit of Casilda, a girl cursed to kill unfaithful husbands.
Casilda allegedly heard of her husband’s affair and killed him, her baby, and the mistress, said to be her mother.
4. Onryo, Japan
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This is a traditional Japanese belief about a vengeful spirit that can and will physically hurt the living. It’s a very scary concept if you’re only familiar with the Western idea of ghosts which don’t really take solid forms and so can’t hurt humans with physical contact.
That’s not true for an Onryo. They are vengeful and full of hate, stopping at nothing to enact the suffering they received when they were alive.
For any of you guys who have seen The Grudge, this spirit is the influence of that creepy girl in that movie.
3. Kelly, Australia
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In the Northern Beaches of Australia, on the country’s east coast, locals tell tales of a girl called Kelly who would appear in people’s cars near Oxford Falls if they were traveling alone past midnight.
She is the spirit of a girl who died in a car crash there in the 1970s and has haunted the road ever since. For me, the scariest part of the story is that if you don’t tell Kelly to get out – she will take control of the car.
Those who believe in the tale of Kelly, worry for the travelers who have never heard the story and don’t know how to tell her to get out of the car.
2. Nale Ba, India
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Nale Ba is a popular folk legend in India about a witch who roams the streets in the night and knocks on the door. It directly refers to a sign people used to hang on their doors in order to ward off a malevolent spirit.
This urban legend went viral during the 1990s in Karnataka, where a witch would be walking down the streets at night knocking on people’s doors.
This time imitating the voice of someone they knew, a loved one or a friend, pleading with the resident to open the door to let them in. Those who answer her call are met with a gruesome death or in some variations the man of the house is taken away.
Consequently, the people came up with the idea of writing “Nale Ba” translating to “come tomorrow” outside the doors and the walls of their house. So when the witch reads it and leaves the house to come again the next day the cycle repeats.
A 2018 Indian horror-comedy movie Stree was based on this urban legend.
1. Pocong, Indonesia
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Pocong is said to be the soul of a dead person who is trapped in a cloth that is often used in a Muslim burial. Muslims often use these white fabric cloths to bury their dead.
So just imagine if you see someone walking around with these clothes all wrapped up. That would be absolutely terrifying. According to traditional beliefs, the soul of a dead person will stay on the earth for 40 days after death.
Many people have claimed to have seen a Pocong walking around. This urban legend has become so popular that many people have done pranks with it.
People are actually dressing up with a white cloth and they are trying to scare as many people as possible.
So these were some scary urban legends. You still with us? Which of these frightful scary urban legends gave you a scare? Any other popular and scary urban legends in your region?