5 Real-Life Monsters to Fuel Your Nightmares

I love anything spooky, whether it’s suspenseful tension, over-the-top gore, or just plain disconcerting creepiness. And apparently I’m not the only one. Horror movies are quickly gaining in popularity. In 2017, the horror genre grossed more than $1 billion in ticket sales for the first time ever.

Some say it’s our inner bad guy that draws us to horror. Others say it’s being able to experience the thrill of danger while knowing we're in the safe confines of a movie theater or our living room.

But what happens when these creepy crawlies and things that go bump in the night aren’t just a part of our silver screen imaginations? Let’s investigate some real life monsters. I'll leave you to decide whether they're totally cool or nightmare fuel.

Giant squid 

Release the kraken! Let’s start off with one of my biggest fears: giant squid.

Giant squid have always deeply freaked me out. They can grow as big as 45 feet long (at least the females can), and they have eyes the size of dinner plates. They can snatch you from as far as 33 feet away by shooting out one of their feeding tentacles. If that’s not creepy, I don’t know what is. 

They can snatch you from as far as 33 feet away by shooting out one of their feeding tentacles.

You might consider this a silly thing to be afraid of. Krakens—I mean, giant squid—are typically only found at ocean depths below 1,000 feet (that’s about 300 meters). But I once saw a documentary that claimed giant squid were “more common than you think.” Now, I hear that phrase whenever my logical brain tries to convince me that I will very likely never ever in my life encounter a giant squid. 

Exaggerated versions of a giant tentacled sea monster known as the kraken have long appeared in Scandinavian folklore, possibly based on sightings of actual giant squid. They’ve also wreaked havoc in movies. The god Zeus in Clash of the Titans called upon one as he famously yelled, “Release the kraken!” Davy Jones called on a giant squid to destroy the ships of his adversaries in Pirates of the Caribbean. Of course, a real-life giant squid wouldn't be able to sink a ship, so you're probably safe on your next all-inclusive ocean cruise.

So, how common are they? A giant squid would be hard to miss if you encountered one. Wikipedia even has a page that claims ...

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