- You've probably at some point heard at least one story about the Boogeyman, a frightening creature
which hides in dark places and comes for us when
we are most vulnerable. Now most of these stories have been disregarded as superstition, tales conjured up to terrify
misbehaving children. However, what's striking
about the Boogeyman is that it exists in almost
every culture around the world in one form or another. It may be then that these
stories represent something unthinkable which science
has not yet encountered. (growling) (woman screams) Here are 10 terrifying real
encounters with the Boogeyman. (tense music) Number 10 is the imp in the closet. A frightening aspect about Boogeyman lore is that this malevolent entity
can take different forms. In 1952, for example,
a boy named Dan Bortco encountered one such horrid incarnation. Dan and his family had moved
recently to an old farm house, complete with a barn nearby. It didn't take long for him to start experiencing the paranormal. He pleaded with his
parents, telling them that there was something else in the house. It appeared to be humanoid in shape, about three feet tall, and
had the twisted appearance of a troll or imp from German folklore. This menacing figure would wait
until the family was in bed and then step out from
a closet in Dan's room, leering at him as if enjoying
frightening the child. One night Dan looked out of his window and saw the creature meeting
several others outside of the barn as if they were
planning something terrible. (tense music) Number nine is dangerous friendship. One of the most frightening
incarnations of the Boogeyman is when it takes the
form of another child. The familiar sight of a
withered hand reaching out of a closet or from underneath a bed is replaced here by something
markedly more sinister. In one account, a young girl
who was about seven years old spoke about her friend Emily. Emily lived in her closet,
had long dark hair, and was also a seven-year-old girl. At first, this seemed like
a normal imaginary friend, but its true dark purpose
soon became apparent. Emily hated the family who lived there. She slowly but surely gained influence over the people in the house, and wanted them to turn on each other, causing them to sleepwalk and
put their lives in danger. When the family moved,
Emily did not follow, and whatever she really was is still and the closet in that old house. Number eight is the creeper man. (tense music) We often think that children don't have a good grasp on reality. However many believe
that they are actually more attuned to what is
around us than adults are. This may explain why
many Boogeyman encounters happen to young people. In one instance, a child
spoke about the strange entity which lived in his grandparents' house, which only he could see. After each visit to the
house, the child would talk about the creature in
one of the the rooms. He referred to it as the creeper man. At first, the boy's parents
thought it was nothing to worry about, but the child was adamant that something unnatural was
in his grandparents' home, and that it only showed itself to him. When his mother asked him
what the man looked like, he answered ominously with
"he doesn't have a face." (tense music) Number seven are sharp fingers. If you were to look at European
folklore and fairy tales, you'd see that some descriptions
of frightening creatures are eerily similar to each other. It's been suggested
that the reason for this is that these descriptions
come from very real encounters with the Boogeyman. One such recurring feature is fingers with long scratching nails. What's most unsettling about this is that people are still encountering
something in their homes which matches this description. In one recent post
online, an internet user by the name Charmaine described
how a troll-like creature with sharp yellow teeth and red eyes would come out from the
shadows in her room at night. At first, it merely
stared and grinned at her, but one night the creature
jumped onto her bed and scratched her with
his sharpened fingers. (tense music) Number six is it watches me. Sally was just seven years old
when she woke up one night. As many children do, she got out of bed and wandered towards her
parents' room for comfort. As she walked across the
living room, Sally froze. Her eyes adjusted to the
darkness, and she finally took in what her mind was trying to tell her. Someone was sitting in a
nearby chair looking at her. It was so dark Sally said "Mom?" The figure in the chair shook its head. That's when in desperation,
she said her stepdad's name, but the thing in the chair
shook its head again. Sally ran back to her bed, terrified, and when she looked up,
the figure was standing in her doorway, grinning and convulsing. When Sally screamed, her
parents ran into her room, but there was no one there. However, Sally's mom had
left some folded clothes on the chair of the living room where the figure had been sitting, and they had been thrown on the ground. (tense music) Number five is ghost theory. Some have suggested
that the stories we hear about haunted houses can be attributed to the Boogeyman phenomenon. This would explain why most
encounters with the Boogeyman are restricted to a localized area such as a house or living room. In one encounter, a family
moved to just one such house. While there, one of the
children began to see strange things, shadow people
moving around the house, strange reflections in a mirror, even noises you would normally associate with a classic haunting. However, the entity in
the house seemed to have betrayed its true nature one
night when one of the children heard something coming from their closet. When the family investigated,
they saw two glowing eyes staring back at them from inside. This was no haunting, it was something entirely more malevolent. Number four is it began with fear. (tense music) One reported encounter with the Boogeyman occurred in South Africa
several years ago. While living at home, a 13-year-old girl began to wake during the night. She was unsure why. At first the nightly
waking was accompanied with an unsettling feeling. Soon, that grew into a thick
sense of dread and fear. The strange thing was the girl had no idea why she was so frightened, but over time she came to understand that the fear was anticipation, that something truly evil
was going to visit her. Then one night she woke up, the terror had reached its peak. Opening her eyes, she saw
a grotesque smiling face staring directly at her. When the light was switched
on, it disappeared, but each night the face would return. Over the years, the creature
would taunt the girl night after night until she
finally learned the truth. The Boogeyman was feeding on her fear. (tense music) Number three is caught in the act. As you can see, most Boogeyman
encounters involve children. However, adults sometimes
come face to face with these dangerous creatures as well. In one such encounter, a
father and his two-year-old son had the same nightly routine. During the night, the son
would start to scream. When the father rushed to the room, the son would keep
repeating the same phrase over and over again, bad man, bad man. The father assumed that this
was a recurring nightmare until one night when his son cried out. He looked at the baby
monitor screen first. What he saw chilled him to the bone. Standing over the boy's bed
was a tall, gaunt figure. The father grabbed a
weapon and ran to the room, but no one was in the room
other than his frightened son. The father had no idea
what he saw that night, but it scared him enough to
put up the house for sale. (tense music) Number two is no words. In a small number of these cases, people witnessed something
so frightening and unusual that their minds could
not fathom what happened in front of their eyes. When faced with a scared child
talking about the Boogeyman at night, most parents don't
expect to see anything. They calmly reassure the child and hope that it's just a stage which the child will soon grow out of. But not every parent is that lucky. In one anonymous post online, a user described how his fiance's son had problems sleeping in his own room. He always ran out of the
room crying during the night, so frustrated, the mother
eventually told the child that she would sleep in
the room for one night to show that there was
nothing going on there. The next day, the mother
was visibly shaken. She couldn't describe what she saw, but after that night,
she did not want her son sleeping in that room any more. And number one is are you alone? (tense music) Perhaps the most chilling
encounter with the Boogeyman happened to a Redditor some years ago. As a child, the Redditor
had moved into a new two-story house with his family. They were decorating
the old home together. One day the child heard his
mother upstairs singing. When he called out "Mom?"
the mother naturally replied from a room on the second floor. The child ran upstairs to find his mother, but just as he was about
to open a creaking door to an old room, the mother asked loudly "Sweetie, are you home?" The problem was, this
voice came from downstairs. The child ran away from the
room on the second floor, hearing something shuffling
around inside the room. The door opened slightly
and something hideous was watching through the gap. Whatever it was, it had
pretended to be the mother to lure the child inside. Thank you very much for watching, and for subscribing to my channel, and a very special thank-you
to all of my channel members, especially the names that you
see on your screen right now. All of you help keep my channel going. Thanks again, and I'll
see you in the next video.
