Creatures and Cryptids!
This legendary winged creature hails from West Virginia and is said to have glowing red eyes. Encounters with this creature is often a warning for disasters.
What is: Mothman
This legend features a Hessian trooper missing his cranium who terrorizes Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow.
Who is: The Headless Horseman
This film franchise features main character Sidney Prescott in a "who-done-it" murder mystery. The killer's main victims are high schoolers and college students.
What is: Scream
This is the country Halloween first became an official holiday in.
What is: Ireland
This book collection features a horror series of 62 classic novellas, noted to be a "safe scare." The target audience is tweens and elementary age children.
What is: Goosebumps
This creature is a shape-shifting spirit of Indigenous folklore. It is associated with cannibalism, winter, and having an insatiable appetite.
What is: a Wendigo
This place is located in the desert town of Nevada and is off-limits to the public. Many believe it is a hotspot for life out of this world.
What is: Area 51
This root vegetable used to be traditionally carved instead of a pumpkin for Halloween.
What is: a turnip
This popular series started in 2016 and takes place in Hawkins, Indiana. Characters frequently tangle with secret scientific experiments and supernatural forces that connect them to another world.
What is: Stranger Things
This infamous cryptid is a plesiosaur like water beast that inhabits the Scottish Highlands.
Who is: The Loch Ness Monster
Believers of this urban legend believe that it is linked to a certain woman in the royal Tudor family of England due to the number of Protestants she put to death for heresy.
Bloody Mary (Mary Tudor)
2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the first vampire movie. The vampire's Romanian name in the 1922 film is synonymous with later movies starring "Dracula."
Who is: Nosferatu
This is the original purpose of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
What is: Fortune telling to predict future marriage
This legend is backed by the real-world giant and colossal squid. This creature is capable of dragging prey and large boats into the dark deep of the ocean.
What is: The Kraken
This is a haunted location is a bridge that can be found in various places in Ohio. A particularly close location is in Salem, Ohio.
What is: Crybaby Bridge
This gag has been banned in Hollywood since 2004. You are not allowed to use it from October 31st 12am to November 1st 12pm. Breaking this law can result in up to six months of jail time and a $1,000 fine.
What is: Silly String
This Gene Wilder film features the grandson of the infamous scientist and his travels to Transylvania. While trying to prove his grandfather was not insane, he gets drawn into the research and creates a reanimated monster of his own.
What is: Young Frankenstein
This creature is Ohio's own version of the Loch Ness Monster.
What is: South Bay Bessie OR Lake Erie Monster
This prison closed in 1990 due to severe overcrowding, systemic abuse, and inhumane living conditions. It is said to be one of the most haunted historic prisons in America.
What is: The Mansfield Reformatory OR The Ohio State Reformatory
Before Halloween became regularly celebrated, there was another holiday in which the British would give this baked good to their version of a "trick-or-treater."
(BONUS if you know the holiday's name!)
What is: A Soul Cake
BONUS: All Souls Day: Poor members of the community would go "souling" door to door, and their more well off neighbors would give them a soul cake. This was in return for prayers for deceased relatives and friends and helped build community bonds.
This cult classic 2014 movie features vampire housemates who try to cope with the complexities of modern life while showing off their perks of being "undead." Later, in 2019, it was turned into a television series.
What is: What We Do in the Shadows