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Your Scariest Ghost?

3) These guys...

Lol, yes, the Gentlemen were certainly creepy as far as I was concerned.

Also this guy...

DerKindestod.jpg

And even...

Ted.png

I realised when I watched them that, for me, the common denominator of them all is the comparative helplessness of their victims.
  • The Gentlemen took their victims voices so that they couldn't call for help.
  • Der Kindestod could only be seen by, and preyed upon children in a hospital, who wouldn't be believed by the staff.
  • Ted had all the appearance of being a perfect guy in public whilst being a physically abusive s.o.b. towards anyone who crossed him/disobeyed him in private*.
* and when I first saw that episode I wondered just how many kids who watched it wished that their own abusive step-parent was a killer android instead of being actual flesh and blood.:(

I'm getting away a wee bit from the point of the thread. Apologies ;)
 
Lol, that's it! I actually got it off my bookcase earlier to see who it was by and was a little disappointed by seeing the illustrations again. My memory of them was worse then the actuality.
Oh I still find it really scary. I still find the stories really scary too. Strangely, the scariest Glamis story for me is the one where someone is walking up a staircase and find their way blocked by something invisible. They feel it and it is shaped like a barrel. They run off and hear it clattering down the stairs behind them. When they relate the story later to, I think the ghillie (I don't have the book to hand right now) he says "Na, that was nae barrel." :omg:

What on earth was it then? I sometimes still find myself worrying about that barrel. :eek:
 
Probably just like every other poster, I spent my formative years reading various books about hauntings. Two of which stayed with me.

One (may have been something to do with Boreley Rectory??), was a team of investigators who had set up various microphones in the space, and recorded something dragging its fingers across a microphone up in the roof, that couldn't be easily accessed.

The other was, again I think, a haunting in Wales, were words would materialise on the walls. Even after more decades than I care to remember, those two examples are creepy to me. Something about unseen somethings that are doing something they shouldn't be. Deliberately, just to mess with folks... :eek:
 
I had lots of ghost books but the illustration that shat me up was this trippy Myra Hindley lookalike in a creepy 1960s’ edition of Alice In Wonderland my parents gave me:

IMG_0919.JPG


From this version - which contained a lot of 'bad trip' illustrations but for some reason, Myra Inna Flower was just too much for me.

IMG_0918.JPG
 
From a collection of fairy tales illustrated by modern graphic artists - the Old Fairy from the original tale that eventually became The Sleeping Beauty:

Fairy 1.jpg


Fairy 2.jpg


Originally posted some time back on the Scariest Book When You Were A Kid thread.

So, next time you're asked to read a bedtime story for a crumb-snatcher who's been a pain in the backside all day...
 
Lol, yes, the Gentlemen were certainly creepy as far as I was concerned.

Also this guy...

View attachment 25686

And even...

View attachment 25687

I realised when I watched them that, for me, the common denominator of them all is the comparative helplessness of their victims.
  • The Gentlemen took their victims voices so that they couldn't call for help.
  • Der Kindestod could only be seen by, and preyed upon children in a hospital, who wouldn't be believed by the staff.
  • Ted had all the appearance of being a perfect guy in public whilst being a physically abusive s.o.b. towards anyone who crossed him/disobeyed him in private*.
* and when I first saw that episode I wondered just how many kids who watched it wished that their own abusive step-parent was a killer android instead of being actual flesh and blood.:(

I'm getting away a wee bit from the point of the thread. Apologies ;)

Hahaha. I only started watching Buffy because I wanted to become desensitized to jump scare faces like that. :D
 
Scariest ghost stories I've heard of?

Very much off the top of my head (and I'll maybe try and look for more details and sources later):

A figure that chased a young mother out of her house in Stockport, its flesh appearing to be in the process of falling from its body - I think some time in the 70's.

The horribly bloated and putrescent, yet apparently conscious, figure of a woman that threatened a man working alone in the basement of an antiques shop somewhere in the Lanes area of Brighton.

The figure of a man standing impossibly atop a derelict building's facade, who smiled at a young boy passing by, put his arms out in front of him, stepped off the very high wall, and 'floated' down to the ground. (Sheffield, some time in the 1950's, I think.)

The man who walks into his bedroom in a quiet hotel to see the figure of a very old lady lying in the bed he knows should be empty - so vivid and lifelike that he assumes it to be an errant occupant of the nursing home next door. (That doesn't sound quite so terrifying as some, but I have a feeling that other disconcerting details may have made it stick in my mind.)

But, who am I kidding? About three quarters of the stories I've come across would necessitate my doubling up on underpants, and possibly the use of some sort of portable commode.

I wonder if anyone else differentiates between 'scary' and 'spooky'. To me, the former represents a kind of immediate visceral reaction that often fades once the initial shock value has worn off. The latter is almost the reverse: an initially odd, but not necessarily frightening experience, that somehow quietly buries its hooks in your consciousness and actually seems to grow in power over time.

In trying to think of an example the nearest second hand experience I can think of is one I mentioned years ago on this thread: 'That man's name is...'. Not at all shityerpants scary, but I've always found it somehow very eerie.
 
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Scary stories i think the one that stuck in my mind was about a joiner/builder who was working alone in a large house or mansion and a ghost attacked him trying to get his overcoat or jacket.
I think the story is quite old but I can’t remember where i read it i was in my teens so late sixties early seventies
 
For me, it has to be the tale I saw on some TV programme about haunted London. A pub landlord working alone in a cellar suddenly found himself in the pitch black as the door slammed shut and the light went out. As he tried in vain to open the door, a gruff voice said something along the lines of "Now, there's two of us down here".
I think I would shit myself.
 
For me, it has to be the tale I saw on some TV programme about haunted London. A pub landlord working alone in a cellar suddenly found himself in the pitch black as the door slammed shut and the light went out. As he tried in vain to open the door, a gruff voice said something along the lines of "Now, there's two of us down here".
I think I would shit myself.

Okay, that is now my most scary story. So much for my plan of getting any sleep tonight....
 
This from Preston creeps quite a few people out. The Bannister Doll, which I have done some looking into but couldn't get very far unsurprisingly. I wanted to check out burial records for the surname Bannister but the church in which she was allegedly buried no longer stands and have no date to search for. I may get back to looking into it at some point: https://www.spookyisles.com/dorothy-the-deadly-bannister-doll-of-preston/

As an aside can anyone recall the computer app that overlaid a modern map with an old map? I could use it to look at some of the alleged locations, specifically a well.
 
Morning peeps just read the retired police mans story about the pub ghost in Newcastle.
Truly terrifying.
 
For me, it has to be the tale I saw on some TV programme about haunted London. A pub landlord working alone in a cellar suddenly found himself in the pitch black as the door slammed shut and the light went out. As he tried in vain to open the door, a gruff voice said something along the lines of "Now, there's two of us down here".
I think I would shit myself.

Sorry for the bump, but this really reminds me of something I read in an article recounting eerie tales from the Tower of London.

I can't find the original source now (will post back if I find it) but there was one where a Beefeater who was quite alone on night duty in a darkened room heard something say "you know, there's only you and I here". Needless to say, there was nobody else in the room.

I wish I could find the original as he tells it much better!

EDIT

Found it. Chap's name was Arthur Crick, and he was sitting on a ledge in the White Tower one evening while halfway through his rounds when he heard "there's only you and I here" from directly behind him.

https://londonrelocation.com/blog/about-london/london-history/living-in-london-ghostly-goings-on/ Story starts in paragraph five.
 
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When you see some of the ghost hunter shows on TV you can definitely notice even seasoned huntersl get scared shitless sometimes.

Personal scariest ghost would be one of those creeping ghosts you can see in some movies.

Ghost hunter scared shitless:
 
"Only you and I here" and "Now there are two of us" are reminiscent of a story I've only seen in print, but in contexts which make me think it was part of oral tradition in the 20th century (it is referenced anecdotally by characters in fiction and in editorial matter in ghost story collections; sorry, I have read far too many of both over far too long a period to dredge up specific references): A householder goes around making sure all the doors and windows are secured properly, and as he locks the last one hears a cheery voice right next to him say: "And now we're locked in the for the night!"

I don't say either the publican or Mr. Crick were drawing the longbow; only that their experiences as reported may have precedent in folk tradition. There may, after all, be a mischievous spirit who delights in creating that particular frisson.
 
"Only you and I here" and "Now there are two of us" are reminiscent of a story I've only seen in print, but in contexts which make me think it was part of oral tradition in the 20th century (it is referenced anecdotally by characters in fiction and in editorial matter in ghost story collections; sorry, I have read far too many of both over far too long a period to dredge up specific references): A householder goes around making sure all the doors and windows are secured properly, and as he locks the last one hears a cheery voice right next to him say: "And now we're locked in the for the night!"...

This is almost exactly the same format as the tale referenced - along with other formulaic spooky stories - in the opening paragraphs of M R James', A School Story.

...Also there was the lady who, on locking her bedroom door in a strange house, heard a thin voice among the bed-curtains say, 'Now we're shut in for the night.'...
 
"Only you and I here" and "Now there are two of us" are reminiscent of a story I've only seen in print, but in contexts which make me think it was part of oral tradition in the 20th century (it is referenced anecdotally by characters in fiction and in editorial matter in ghost story collections; sorry, I have read far too many of both over far too long a period to dredge up specific references): A householder goes around making sure all the doors and windows are secured properly, and as he locks the last one hears a cheery voice right next to him say: "And now we're locked in the for the night!"

I don't say either the publican or Mr. Crick were drawing the longbow; only that their experiences as reported may have precedent in folk tradition. There may, after all, be a mischievous spirit who delights in creating that particular frisson.

Oh I love stuff like this! I do wonder if Crick's response ("let me get my bloody shoe on and then there'll be just you!") was something he thought of after-the-fact.... seems almost too perfect a line!
 
Hmmm...since I have read that James story that's one reference I couldn't remember sorted out. It's possible that the other places I've read it were all referring back to James rather than to their own oral history; but that's the thing about folklore, isn't it? It gets in everywhere and nobody's ever sure where it came from.
 
Hmmm...since I have read that James story that's one reference I couldn't remember sorted out. It's possible that the other places I've read it were all referring back to James rather than to their own oral history; but that's the thing about folklore, isn't it? It gets in everywhere and nobody's ever sure where it came from.

Indeed, yes.

In fact, in that same sequence in A School Story, James' protagonist also references 'the house in Berkeley Square': a rabbit hole down which many interested in folklore and ghost stories have disappeared - never to be heard of again.
 
Oh I still find it really scary. I still find the stories really scary too. Strangely, the scariest Glamis story for me is the one where someone is walking up a staircase and find their way blocked by something invisible. They feel it and it is shaped like a barrel. They run off and hear it clattering down the stairs behind them. When they relate the story later to, I think the ghillie (I don't have the book to hand right now) he says "Na, that was nae barrel." :omg:

What on earth was it then? I sometimes still find myself worrying about that barrel. :eek:
Glamis is one spooky place
https://www.spookyisles.com/haunted-glamis-castle-facts/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-monster-of-glamis-92015626/

The scariest movie ghosts for me are in The Haunting, a combination of sound, camerawork and the viewer's imagination
 
Agreed with both of you. The Haunting even beats The Evil Dead for atmosphere for me and I worship The Evil Dead. It's definitely the best ghost film ever made.
 
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"Now there are two of us" also reminds me of "Aye, we're flitting": the reply to a neighbour which came from the luggage of a family who were moving house to escape from a boggart.

This made me laugh as my old dear says 'flitting' instead of 'moving house'. It's a Scottish/Northern English dialect word.
 
The scariest movie ghosts for me are in The Haunting, a combination of sound, camerawork and the viewer's imagination

This is in my database as a green man in popular culture :)
 
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