Ghosts.
Are.
Everywhere.
It’s true!
You’d be hard-pressed to find a square kilometer of developed land without a paranormal story
attached.
This is true the world over, with stories of unhappy deaths compelling spirits to return
to the waking world existing in every culture.
While these stories often share a lot of the same elements; like floating, pale spirits
returning with unfinished business, there are a lot of differences too!
Ghosts in different cultures often speak to specific fears, and take on new forms because
of this.
In fact, many famous ghost stories and urban legends are based on natural and man-made
phenomena, things that scare people even without the introduction of a ghastly figure.
These fears differ geographically, likely due to whatever horrors the ancestors in the
area had to deal with many moons ago.
So while ghosts and hauntings are universal, the reasons behind them are definitely not.
Hello horror heads, and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube: Top5ScaryVideos.
I’m your horror host, Keegan Hughes, and today we’re taking a look at the Top 5 Terrifying
Ghost Hauntings in the World.
Maybe put the passport away for this one, because you might not want to take that trip
after I tell you what’s lurking in the darkness.
Before we get started, I want to remind you to fire a thumbs up down below, and make sure
to subscribe for more horrifying hauntings.
ROLL THE CLIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6BMehj59co 1:06-1:10
For those who don’t know, that was from the incredible japanese haunted house classic,
HOUSE.
Unfortunately, it didn’t make the list today, but I thought it would be a fun way to kick
off our hauntings countdown.
Let’s get started.
NUMBER FIVE: KUCHISAKE-ONNA Hailing from Japan, this beastly beauty is
a force to be reckoned with indeed.
Japan has the best ghost stories, eh?
Yokai, vengeful spirits, slow-burning psychological horror, there’s something for everyone!
I could probably do a whole video, or even a bunch of videos on Japanese horror!
But for now, we’ll talk specifically about Kuchisake-Onna, also known as the slit-mouthed
woman.
This ghost appears as a beautiful woman wearing a mask or face-covering of some kind.
She will haunt train and bus stations late at night, looking for her next victim.
When she spots one, Kuchisake-Onna will approach her mark and ask them “Am I beautiful?”
If the victim answers yes, she will remove her mask to reveal a gaping, bloody smile,
slit from ear to ear.
She’ll ask again, and if the victim still says yes, they’ll end up with a smile just
like hers!
Twins!
Kuchisake-Onna will take out her knife, and slice the poor transit-taker’s face to match
her own.
If at any point the person tells her she is not beautiful, she’ll take that same sharp
blade and kill them.
Some say she chops them in half, others say she disembowels her prey.
Either way, it’s bad news for anyone who is approached.
There really is no right answer.
Although, some speculate that you can avoid it altogether by telling her she is average
before running away.
Other survival stories detail distracting the ghost with hard candies, or confusing
her by asking if she thinks the victim is beautiful.
The hard candies thing is odd, because it would probably be really difficult to suck
on anything with a mouth like that.
Huh.
This story is said to have origins dating back to the days of the samurai.
The original Kuchisake-Onna is thought to be the adulterous wife of a samurai who mutilated
her as revenge.
Other versions claim she was disfigured during a botched surgery, attacked by a woman jealous
of her beauty, and that the mouth is filled with super-sharp teeth.
At one point in the 1970’s, the ghastly legend became so popular that police patrols
were increased, and children were not allowed to walk home alone.
So practice what you’re gonna say in front of the mirror, and make sure you stay strapped
with Jolly Ranchers.
Unless you wanna go around telling people how you got that smile!
NUMBER FOUR: SKONDHOKATAS Okay, this one is a little harder to find
lots of information on, but don’t lose your head!
I’ll tell you everything I know.
These stumbling ghosts haunt the railways crisscrossing India.
Being the fourth-largest rail system in the world, there have been numerous accidents
with unfortunate fatalities.
Derailings, collisions, trips-and-falls on the tracks, you name it.
Some of the accidents have led to headless victims, and therefore, headless ghosts.
Skondhokatas are ghosts with everything above the shoulders removed.
They spend their days shambling along the train tracks where they lost their lives.
Forever looking for their heads, Skondhokatas will ask folks passing by to help them search.
This is not a friendly request, though.
If someone refuses, or gives up after a while, the ghosts will possess them, hypnotize them,
or otherwise take control of them and make them continue looking forever.
Unfortunately for the ghosts and their new helpers, the heads are long gone.
Nobody’s gonna leave a rotting human head on the tracks, sorry!
Thankfully, these malevolent foragers aren’t very smart.
You know, because they don’t have heads.
So a seasoned traveller can outsmart and trick these ghosts before they have a chance to
use their possession powers.
So let this be a lesson to you all: if someone’s looking for head near the train tracks, DON’T
offer to help.
NUMBER THREE: LA LLORONA This one is a little more well known, thanks
to Hollywood’s recent adaptation of the classic Spanish folktale.
If you’ve seen the Conjuring spinoff “The Curse of La Llorona,” you’ll know the
gist, but that flick definitely missed out one some of the creepiest parts of the wailing
mother searching for redemption.
Also known as the Weeping Woman, La Llorona is a ghost story about a beautiful young woman
named Maria.
Maria met a rich man, charmed him with her looks, and got married.
The couple had two lovely children, and were happy for a while.
As is the case in a lot of stories, the man became less and less interested in Maria as
time went on, spending less time with the family, until he would only come around to
see the children.
This did not sit right with poor Maria, but she carried on.
Until, one day, she saw her husband with another, much younger woman.
In a fit of rage, Maria drowned her children in the nearby river.
Upon realizing what she had done, Maria drowned herself as well.
Upon reaching heaven, Maria was stopped at the gates, and banished to purgatory as a
ghost upon earth.
It is said that on the day of Maria’s funeral, a woman in a white funereal gown was seen
in the river, scraping the bottom.
In the years following her death, people have seen a spectral figure in white wading through
lakes and rivers, searching for something.
Cries of “Ay, mis hijos!”, or “Oh, my children!” can be heard when she is present.
The further the cries sound, the closer she is, so be careful.
This spirit will often mistake living children for her own, and drown them in a fit of confusion
and rage.
For this reason, children in Mexico are warned not to go out alone at night, lest La Llorona
snatch them up.
La Llorona is a tragic tale of a desperate woman, not an evil one, and her ghost is one
searching for redemption and her children, not looking for revenge.
This makes the story all the more sad and scary, because she pulls more families into
a tragedy without even realizing it.
NUMBER TWO: GJENGANGER We’ve just wrapped up a river spirit, now
we can talk about Viking spirits!
The yen gongur, or gjenferd, is a Scandinavian ghost with good reason to return.
Murderers, their victims, people who committed suicide, or those with something on Earth
left undone, these again-walkers will return to the Earth in full corporeal form.
Kinda like zombie-ghost-vampires, in a way.
They have physical form, and often have the goal of disturbing the lives of those who
wronged them.
Because of this, they often look like real people, and are difficult to differentiate
between living humans.
Adept at spreading sickness, these ghouls can cause your flesh to fall away from your
body with just a touch.
One of their more famous methods of haunting involves a deadly pinch.
They will pinch someone in the dead of night, which leaves a blue spot.
At first that doesn’t sound too bad, but a dead-man’s pinch is a sign of impending
sickness and death.
This mark will then spread to the victim’s heart and kill them.
And here I was thinking that pinches were no big deal.
It is likely that fear of this kind of haunting came from old-school disease-based superstitions.
Death was more well-integrated into life back then, and corpses weren’t as easy to dispose
of.
If people weren’t careful about sealing away their dead, sickness could very well
spread to those still alive.
Practical and terrifying!
NUMBER ONE: AMITYVILLE I don’t even need to talk about this one,
there’s already so much media out there concerning Amityville.
Books, movies, documentaries, radio shows, you name it.
This house on Long Island has received it’s fair share of attention over the years thanks
to the famous mass-murder that took place within, and the subsequent haunting.
You know, swarming flies, demonic pigs, ooze seeping through the walls and floors.
Classic stuff, really.
This could very well be the prototypical American haunted house.
All of these stories are based on two major events: the mass murders committed by Ronald
DeFeo, Jr. in November of 1974, and the experiences of Kathleen and George Lutz afterwards.
DeFeo walked through his house at 3:15am, and shot every single one of his family members.
For reasons still unknown, each victim was found lying in the same position: face down
on the bed.
DeFeo did not use a silenced weapon, nor did he have any proveable accomplices, so it is
quite strange that nobody woke up and moved from that position.
DeFeo’s story also changed over time, so we may never truly know what happened on that
fateful night.
However, this family was murdered by their own son, which is reason enough to come back
from the afterlife and haunt the house.
These hauntings are well-documented in Jay Anson’s “true story” book, The Amityville
Horror.
We won’t discuss all of the hoax-talk surrounding this though, I just wanna get to the spooky
stuff.
Kathleen and George moved in with their kids shortly after DeFeo was convicted, and soon
began experiencing strange events.
They were plagued by flies, even in the winter months.
George would wake up at exactly 3:15 each night.
Kathleen was plagued by vivid nightmares about the murders.
They saw a demon in the fire, with a half-blown-out head.
Their child developed an imaginary child that looked like a demonic pig with red eyes, and
other people claimed to see it too.
A priest tried to bless the house, heard a voice telling him to get out, and ended up
developing unexplained red welts on his hands.
Kathleen even levitated out of her bed at 3:15.
There’s a famous picture of a demonic boy taken by Ed and Lorraine Warren that appears
to show a young boy with glowing eyes, even though there was no such boy in the house
at the time.
Some speculate that it was the ghost of the 9 year old DeFeo boy, still roaming the house
in which he died.
The events I just covered don’t even scrape the surface of stories told about the Amityville
Horror, but you probably have an idea of how haunted this house is.
The house was actually sold to new owners in 2017, and they haven’t reported any strange
events yet.
All we need now is a brand new Hollywood horror detailing the events so someone opens up investigations
again.
What a list, huh?
So many ghosts all over the world, so little time.
What do you think?
What is the scariest haunting in the world?
Are there any international haints that I didn’t mention?
Let me know down in the comments.
Before I disappear, let’s take a look at some of your more insightful comments from
our last video:
David Rosales says: “U can never escape us we will always b here til we get TOP 5
DANTE’s INFERNO TORTURES” Does that mean if we do the top 5 dante’s
inferno tortures you’ll disappear forever?
Where will you go?
I don’t know if i can deal with that pressure.
Char Aznable says “I have 7 inch bone penetration.
Heh” JESUS!
YOU NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!
HOW ARE YOU NOT BLEEDING TO DEATH!
Idru Lili says “lol I had a crush on pinhead” Sure, he’s handsome, but how would you deal
with all of the body-rending torture?
John Lloyd says “You’ve got the BEST t-shirts!
You GOTTA spill the tea on your source!”
Sorry, that’s highly classified information!
Although I will say that the internet is a great place to start.
Der kevin der takko says “Whit the Birds now What I’ve Done ohhh noooo”
Uhhhh.
Yeah!
And that’s it for today!
Don’t forget to fire a like down below, and subscribe for more spooky stuff!
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time!