Top 10 Terrifying Female Creatures from Folklore
Folk tales aren't always about true love and fairy godmothers! Join MsMojo as we countdown our picks for the Top 10 Terrifying Female Creatures from Folklore.
For this list, we'll be looking at the scariest women from folk tales or legends, but won't be including creatures based on historical people, like the ghost of Anne Boleyn. We also won't be including any mythical creatures today, as they will be getting their own list.
#10: Yuki-onna
Japanese Folklore
This name is given to a mysterious and enticing “snow woman” who haunts snow-laden areas in the dead of winter. The spirit of a woman who froze to death, she’s easily recognizable, with pale skin, icy blue lips and long raven-black hair combining to create her frigid beauty. But the very whiteness of her skin makes her hard to spot in a snowstorm – a fact she uses to her advantage. Like many other Japanese spirits, she leaves no footprints, and she can also suddenly transform into mist or snow. This makes it easy for her to come upon unwary travelers and dispatch them with her fatal freezing breath.
#9: Soucouyant
Caribbean Folklore
By day, these innocent little old ladies look like they couldn’t hurt a fly – but by night, watch out! When night falls, they toss aside their wrinkled skin and become horrifying blood-sucking hags. Traveling across the night sky in a ball of flame, the soucouyant seeks out her victims. They take advantage of even the tiniest crack to enter a home. Once inside, they feast on a sleeping victim, and said victim will awaken with bruises – if they’re lucky, that is. The not-so-lucky ones either become a soucouyant or die– at which point the soucouyant takes their skin to live in during the day.
#8: Jenny Greenteeth
English Folklore
This monster gets her name from her green skin and razor-sharp teeth. She lives in bogs, ponds or rivers, covered in slime and algae with her long hair swirling around her. If anyone gets too close, she pulls them into the water and holds them down until they drown. Her favorite victims are young children or the very elderly, and in some legends, she doesn’t just drown her victims – she eats them. She is associated with duckweed, which can gather into a thick mat on the surface of a pond so that it looks like solid ground, leading children to try to walk on it and sink down into the water.
#7: Ohaguro-Bettari
Japanese Folklore
This creature, often dressed like a beautiful bride, calls out to young men, but modestly hides her face. Intrigued, the men approach her, anticipating a treat for their eyes. But when they get close, she turns around to reveal that her face is a featureless white mask with a gaping blackened mouth. Sometimes these creatures will even appear outside a man’s house, pretending to be his wife. Ohaguro-Bettari is part of a class of monsters that appear as beautiful women from a distance. There are many other types, including the rokurokubi, whose necks stretch out to entangle their victims, and the Jorōgumo, who is actually a bloodthirsty spider.
#6: Mare
Germanic Folklore
Many folk tales speak of creatures that attack sleeping victims, and the mare falls into this category. These evil spirits like to climb aboard a person’s chest as they sleep, “riding” them like a horse. The victim stays asleep, but this exertion enables the mare to steal their breath and energy. The victim awakens the next day feeling exhausted and drained. This creature thus gave rise to the word "nightmare." Mares don’t only ride humans, though – they also exhaust animals, such as horses, and even like to climb aboard a tree, leaving it stunted and tangled. Mares also tangle themselves in the hair of humans or animals, leaving them with a bad case of “bed head.”
#5: Kuchisake-Onna
Japanese Legend
Her name means "Slit-Mouthed Woman," and with good reason. She is the ghost of a woman whose mouth was slit from ear to ear by her jealous husband. According to urban legend, this restless spirit wears a surgical mask to hide her mutilated face, approaching strangers and asking if they think she’s pretty. If they say no, she kills them with a pair of scissors. If they say yes, she removes the mask, revealing her mutilated mouth. “What about now?” she asks. If the victim says no, she cuts them in half. If they say yes, she slits their mouth open to look like hers. A lose-lose situation if ever there was one.
#4: Black Annis
English Folklore
This crone has a blue face, iron claws, and a distinct fondness for the taste of human flesh. At night she wanders the glens of Leicestershire, looking for victims. Her favorite food? Children, although she’ll take lamb in a pinch. Before she eats a child, she skins them alive and wears it around her face– um, quite the fashion statement. Or she may use the hides to decorate her walls – which probably need a little something. See, she lives in a cave that she dug herself with her long sharp claws, with an oak tree in front of the entrance. It’s called Black Annis’ Bower, and she likes to hide in the tree in order to capture unsuspecting travelers.
#3: Baba Yaga
Slavic Folklore
Ruthless and clever, this trickster figure lives in the depths of the woods, with her house supported by chicken legs and surrounded by a fence of human bones. As a witch, she can fly around in a mortar with a pestle in hand. She is very powerful, so people sometimes ask her for help. Those who seek her out sometimes find a maternal guide, but she also eats anyone who displeases her. Even if you do convince her to help, Baba Yaga isn’t gentle. For example, in one folk tale she gives a young girl a skull full of fire, which completely incinerates the girl’s stepmother and stepsisters. Talk about a fairy godmother.
#2: Aswang
Filipino Folklore
These flesh-eating shapeshifters are regular townspeople by day, but at night they transform into terrifying creatures or vicious animals. As a strange and frightening combination of vampires, witches and werewolves, they feed on children, including unborn babies. In order to get at a fetus inside a mother’s womb, they use a long proboscis to suck the baby out while the mother is sleeping. In some stories, they make a horrible tik-tik sound, which is louder when they are far away and softer when they are close. Confused, people try to run away from the noise, but instead they run right into the Aswang’s clutches.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
The Bell Witch
American Folklore
The Headless Nun
Canadian Folklore
Ajatar
Finnish Folklore
Hone-onna
Japanese Legend
Chedipe
Indian Folklore
Screamin' Jenny
American Folklore
#1: Bloody Mary
British and Folklore
In the dark of night, in a candlelit room, look into a mirror and chant the name “Bloody Mary” three times. They say that this evil spirit appears to those who complete the ritual. When she appears, she might tell your fortune or reveal the face of your future husband – but she might also scream, curse you, claw out your eyes, drink your blood or even strangle you and steal your soul. It’s impossible to know what will happen, but either way, this blood-soaked apparition is sure to give a fright. Seriously, maybe you’d be better off with a Ouija board – or with just not asking about the future.
Do you agree with our list? What’s your favorite terrifying female creature from folklore? For more legendary Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to MsMojo.
