These are the ghosts with the most! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the scariest ghosts throughout the world.
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00:00Okay, alright. You wanna play Bloody Mary? Let's play Bloody Mary.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks
00:09for the scariest ghosts throughout the world.
00:12Do you feel this?
00:20Number 20, The Vanishing Hitchhiker.
00:24No entertainment. Now there's no entertainment.
00:26Dammit! Well, guess we just have to talk to each other.
00:32We talked to each other already.
00:34The myth of the Vanishing Hitchhiker is one of the most chilling urban legends,
00:38deeply rooted in the eerie unknown and creepy dark roads.
00:42It tells of late night drivers traveling down lonely winding roads,
00:47often during storms or foggy nights, and encountering a hitchhiker.
00:52The driver picks them up.
00:54Sometimes they sit idly and silently in the back seat.
00:57Other times they have full conversations.
01:01Regardless, when they reach the destination,
01:03the driver turns to let the hitchhiker out and sees that they are gone.
01:08A version of this story has existed since at least the 17th century.
01:12And if you're unlucky enough,
01:14you might find yourself driving down that same road
01:17where the Vanishing Hitchhiker waits,
01:20patiently and eternally, for the next driver.
01:23What are you looking at me like that for?
01:29Just looking.
01:30Number 19. The Wild Hunt.
01:33In storm clouds just like these,
01:36phantom hunters would appear,
01:39riding black horses with blood-red eyes.
01:42This is a terrifying myth that has haunted the forests and skies of Europe for centuries,
01:48particularly in the cold, dark nights of winter when eerie silence abounds.
01:53The Wild Hunt is made up of spectral warriors and twisted souls of the damned,
01:59all of whom follow some type of mythical leader like Cain or even the Devil.
02:04The thunderous gallop of hooves hunt not just beasts, but human souls.
02:10It is said that the Wild Hunt brings misfortune, plague and war to the land it rides across,
02:16and the one who sees them will go mad.
02:20That is, if their soul isn't ripped away to join their cursed procession.
02:25What were they hunting?
02:27Souls.
02:31Number 18. The Gettysburg Ghosts.
02:34We're in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
02:36This is one of the most active paranormal hotspots in the world.
02:40Few American locations are as haunted as the Gettysburg National Military Park.
02:45This park is responsible for protecting the land on which the Battle of Gettysburg was fought back in 1863,
02:52the violence of which resulted in profound paranormal activity.
02:56As night falls, the battlefield becomes a place of eerie silence,
03:01and visitors report hearing the distant sounds of cannon fire, gunshots,
03:06and even the spectral yell of military orders.
03:09Many have also reported seeing apparitions of soldiers in ragged Civil War uniforms,
03:14some of them still wielding their weapons, or groaning in agony with the pain of their eternal injuries.
03:21You can distinctly make out the rifle in the backpack,
03:24and as it moves closer to the tree line, you can see it go into a ready-aim-fire position as the gun is swung around.
03:31Number 17. Banshee.
03:34No! I hear... a scream!
03:39What?
03:42Hold on, Ulrich! Just hold on!
03:45A shadowy specter from Irish folklore, the name Banshee comes from the Gaelic words meaning lady or woman and fairy,
03:52but she is no Tinkerbell.
03:55While more frequently heard than seen, this ghoul is said to appear as either an old hag or a beautiful woman,
04:02but always folded in a dark, ragged cloak with long, wild hair.
04:07Unlike most ghosts, Banshees are not the lost souls of once-living people, but more a force of nature.
04:15Her wailing is said to herald the approach of death, and to hear her cry is to know that someone in the family will soon die.
04:23Once a family hears the Banshee screaming, there's nothing they can do but wait for the inevitable.
04:30Get it out of my head!
04:32I don't hear anything! Tell me what to do!
04:36Number 16. Onryo.
04:47Roughly translating to dim soul, yorei are creepy ghosts found in Japanese folklore.
04:54There are different types of yorei, like the matronly ghosts Ubume or the mermaid-like figures Funayure who wander the sea.
05:03But perhaps the creepiest of all are the onryo.
05:06The onryo is one of Japan's most terrifying spirits, a ghost fueled by raw hatred and unquenchable thirst for revenge,
05:15often to right a wrong that was inflicted upon them in life.
05:18And unlike other restless spirits, the onryo don't merely frighten.
05:23No, they have a horrifying ability to inflict physical harm,
05:28sometimes murdering their enemies or even causing natural disasters to inflict pain on entire regions.
05:36Basically, no one is safe from the unbridled wrath of an onryo.
05:49Number 15. The ghosts of Hampton Court.
05:53Over the years, many members of public and visitors and staff have reported hearing the screams.
06:01Built in the early 16th century, Hampton Court Palace was once a favorite residence of Henry VIII and is now a popular tourist attraction.
06:09People come from all over the world to wander its maze, look at its famous works of art and try to glimpse its famous ghosts.
06:18Catherine Howard is said to haunt the palace grounds, screaming and pleading for mercy from her violent husband.
06:25Jane Seymour can also be spotted from time to time, sadly drifting between rooms,
06:31and sometimes cradling the baby she never got to enjoy in life.
06:35And that's not counting the creepy Skeletor ghost the court shared to the world back in 2013.
06:42Maybe just stay in the maze or something.
06:45The specter of Catherine Howard comes running, screaming for her life, and knocks on that door there.
06:54Number 14. The Winchester Mystery House.
06:57No master plan. Each maze of halls more confusing than the next.
07:03A house under never-ending construction.
07:06On the National Register of Historic Places is the Winchester Mystery House, the private residence once belonging to Sarah Winchester.
07:14Sarah was married to the firearms magnate William Winchester,
07:18and her house is a place of endless corridors, twisted staircases, and doors that lead to nowhere.
07:26The bizarre and often confusing architecture has led to many legends.
07:30It is said that Winchester built the house to escape the vengeful spirits of those killed by her family's weapons.
07:38The labyrinth was explicitly designed to confuse the ghosts that tormented her.
07:43Ghosts that are still trapped in the house in the forms of whispers, footsteps, and shadow figures.
07:50When she lived here, did she ever think that any of the spirits ever came to the house?
07:55Well, it's said that she communed with the spirits on a nightly basis.
07:59She did?
08:00Number 13. Peg Entwistle.
08:03In life, this Welsh-born English beauty was aspiring stage and screen actress Millicent Lillian Peg Entwistle.
08:16Tragically, she only achieved the fame she craved after she leapt from the H on the, as it was then known, Hollywoodland sign, to her death.
08:26On September 18, 1932, Hollywood police got an anonymous phone call from a woman who claims to have found a body under the sign.
08:35But that was not the last time Peg was found. Not alive, anyway.
08:39Since her death, hikers and park rangers have reported a ghostly, blonde-haired woman sadly wandering near the iconic landmark, but who vanishes if you approach.
08:50Others have reported the overpowering scent of Gardenia's, Peg's signature perfume.
08:55They gave me 25 scripts to read, and only one of them's any good.
08:59It's called Peg. It's about Peg Entwistle, the girl who killed herself jumping off the Hollywood sign.
09:04Number 12. The inhabitants of Drury Lane.
09:07We're in London at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and we're going to be spending 24 hours hoping that the resident ghosts are going to put on one big performance.
09:17Having been around in some capacity since the 17th century, Drury Lane is perhaps London's most iconic theatre.
09:24That's not just because of its long history and stellar productions, but its many ghostly inhabitants.
09:30One of them is the famous Man in Grey, who was found entombed inside the theatre's walls in the mid-19th century.
09:38Drury Lane also hosts Irish actor Charles Macklin, who killed Thomas Hallam with a cane back in 1735.
09:46His ghost now haunts the spot where he stabbed Hallam to death over a wig.
09:51There are whispers of other spirits too.
09:54Phantoms of long-forgotten actors, and even the restless dead of audience members who are enjoying the plays for eternity.
10:02The actors were staring into the darkness and saw a movement here where we're seated,
10:06and 70 people watched the little man in grey walk across this very area.
10:10Number 11. La Llorona.
10:12She discovered him in the arms of a younger woman.
10:17What'd she do?
10:20She took from him what was most priceless.
10:23A native of Mexico and the southwestern United States, La Llorona is a popular villain of Latin American folklore.
10:30La Llorona was once the beautiful Maria, but she was driven mad by jealousy when she discovered her husband's affair.
10:37She then drowned her own children in a fit of rage, and proceeded to take her own life once she realized what she had done and the guilt had set in.
10:46She now roams the earth as a spirit trapped between worlds, wailing in anguish as she searches for her lost children.
10:54And be prepared if you see or hear her, as those who cross her path are cursed with bad luck, and sometimes even death.
11:12Number 10. Amityville.
11:14Let me out of here!
11:17Let me out of here!
11:21This Long Island house became a worldwide sensation in 1977 when Jay Anson published The Amityville Horror,
11:29the now classic account of the Lutz family and their terrifying experience inside of its walls.
11:35The eerie events kicked off in 1974 when a man named Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family while they slept.
11:44DeFeo claimed that voices in the house had driven him to do it.
11:48When the Lutzes moved in, they were plagued by a demonic pig-like creature named Jody,
11:54ooze dripping from the walls, and disembodied voices screaming at them to leave.
12:00Desperate and terrified, the family fled the house after less than a month.
12:05They left everything behind, an offering of sorts to the house that ruined their lives.
12:10But is Hollywood's treatment of what happened in that house in Amityville anywhere close to what really happened?
12:16Number 9. The ghosts of the Stanley Hotel.
12:19I get a lot of people who come up to the tours desk or ask me on my tours,
12:23is the place really haunted? Oh yeah, it's haunted.
12:27The inspiration for Stephen King's Overlook Hotel in The Shining, the Stanley Hotel is said to be inhabited by many ghosts.
12:35Staff and guests have complained of bizarre sounds, objects moving on their own accord,
12:41and the piano in the dining room playing by itself at night.
12:45When the hotel opened in 1909, it was considered one of the pinnacle luxury hotels.
12:51However, first hauntings were reported as far back as 1911,
12:55after a housekeeper, Elizabeth Wilson, who was electrocuted and survived during a storm.
13:01Paranormal activity is frequently reported in room 217 and the concert hall.
13:07In early 2016, a tourist snapped some photographs of the empty lobby,
13:12only to find that perhaps he hadn't been so alone after all.
13:16A man from Houston recently visited Estes Park and, well, he took this photo
13:21in which he sees something paranormal in the panoramic of the lobby.
13:35The Brown Lady is thought to be the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpool,
13:39the sorely mistreated wife of Viscount Charles Townsend.
13:43Locked in her room by her husband until her death in 1726,
13:47some believe she still haunts the house she could never leave.
13:50So nicknamed because of the brown brocade dress she wears, many have encountered the lady,
13:56including guests at a Christmas party who reported a lady with no eyes,
14:01King Charles IV, who left in the night as a result,
14:05and Captain Frederick Marriott, who described encountering a woman who, quote,
14:11grinned in a malicious and diabolical manner. Yikes!
14:15In 1936, a London-based photographer managed to capture the now-famous image of the lady on the stairs.
14:29Number 7. Lincoln's Ghost, a.k.a. The White House Ghost.
14:41Since the fateful night at Ford's Theatre in 1865,
14:45countless people, from presidents to visiting statesmen and women to staff,
14:50have reported seeing Abe's ghost throughout the White House.
14:53Some have simply heard footsteps and knocking and attributed the sounds to the deceased pres.
14:59However, in 1942, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands heard a knock at her guestroom door.
15:06When she answered, there stood the former president.
15:09The queen immediately fainted.
15:12Furthermore, Sir Winston Churchill, fresh from a bath, was surprised to see Lincoln standing by his fireplace.
15:19The British Prime Minister, never to be outdone,
15:22bid him good evening and admitted himself at a disadvantage,
15:26to which the ghost reportedly smiled as though amused and vanished.
15:31I think in some ways people might like the idea that Lincoln is still hanging around watching over us.
15:36Number 6. Bell Witch.
15:39The reason why we run people out of here is because stuff's happening all the time.
15:43People see things. People hear things.
15:48A frightening 19th-century tale, the Bell family of Adams, Tennessee, had one serious ghost problem.
15:55The spirit, soon known as the Bell Witch, tormented the prominent farming family for years,
16:02upsetting furniture, assaulting them, cursing them, driving off the daughter suitor, and finally, killing.
16:10People traveled from all over to witness the disturbing events,
16:14many of whom were chased away by the shrieking specter.
16:18In 1820, John Bell, the patriarch, was supposedly poisoned.
16:23According to the family, as he lay dying, they could hear the witch laughing.
16:29To this day, unaccountable disturbances are reported on the Red River settlement,
16:34the site of the old Bell farm, and these disturbances are thought to be the work of a violent witch.
16:41An evil entity actually caused the death, murdered a living person, John Bell.
16:49Number 5. Catherine's Ghost.
16:52In coastal Maine, something more mysterious than fog lingers on a rural country road.
16:59Found in the southeast of Maine is Catherine's Hill, named after the ghost who is said to haunt its grounds.
17:06Legend has it that Catherine was driving or walking in the mountains when she met a violent fate and perished.
17:13Some say she wanders the hill seeking her lost boyfriend.
17:17Others that she is looking for her missing head that she lost in the accident.
17:22Travelers now see Catherine wandering the dark forest in her pale blue nightgown,
17:27and sometimes she even approaches to ask for a ride into town.
17:32Those who decline her request are said to suffer grim fates,
17:36like being lost in the woods forever, plagued to wander alongside Catherine.
17:42You must stop the car, you must open the door, you must offer her a ride,
17:46because otherwise the specter will curse you.
17:49Number 4. Flying Dutchman.
17:52An ocean liner? Where did that come from?
17:56Not a person this time, but a ship.
17:58While there are variations to the legend, the basic story involves Captain Hendrik van der Decken,
18:04who in 1641 ignored the pleas of his crew to take safe harbor during a storm.
18:10He swore not even God could halt his course,
18:13and from that time on, the Flying Dutchman and its entire crew were cursed.
18:18Accounts of the doomed ship have cropped up all over the world,
18:22with the ghost ship usually interpreted as an omen for a coming storm or death.
18:27The chilling tale of the doomed crew, first spread by sailors,
18:32has since seen its share of exposure in popular culture, however,
18:36inspiring everything from a Wagner opera to Pirates of the Caribbean to Spongebob Squarepants.
18:45That's the Flying Dutchman.
18:49She doesn't look like much.
18:51Number 3. The ghost of Anne Boleyn.
18:54You look after Elizabeth. It won't come to that, I promise.
19:00The ghost of Henry VIII's ill-fated second wife, Anne Boleyn,
19:04has been allegedly spotted throughout the UK.
19:07Most frequently, she's seen at the Tower of London,
19:10where she spent her final days, was beheaded and later buried.
19:14However, the Queen has also been seen at the window of the Dean's Cloister at Windsor Castle.
19:20Most dramatically, Boleyn is said to haunt Blickling Hall as well,
19:25a grand manor built on the old Boleyn family property.
19:29On the grounds, she is said to be occasionally seen arriving by a ghostly carriage,
19:35driven by headless horses and a headless coachman,
19:39while she herself holds her severed head on her lap.
19:43That's one way to make an entrance.
19:45Why are you here?
19:47To see my daughter.
19:49She was the only pure thing in my life, and in my life I neglected her.
19:54Number 2. Bloody Mary.
19:57So how you play is you say Bloody Mary three times into the mirror,
20:00and then her dead body is supposed to appear in the mirror and try to kill you.
20:05It's an old slumber party standby.
20:08The blood-soaked woman is said to appear to anyone brave or foolish enough
20:13to stand in front of a mirror at night and say her name three times.
20:19Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. Bloody...
20:22No, can't. Scared.
20:24The ritual is the same, but results supposedly vary.
20:27Some say she will tell your fortune,
20:29others that she will scratch out the eyes of whoever called her.
20:33The ghost is said to be the spirit of Mary I of England,
20:37who earned her grisly moniker after having hundreds of Protestants butchered.
20:42The Bloody Mary legend has gone on to inspire many movies and TV shows.
20:47Personally, we prefer our Bloody Marys with a stalk of celery and lots of ice.
20:53Bloody Mary.
20:57Bloody Mary.
21:04Bloody Mary.
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21:21Number 1. Headless Horseman
21:23When Washington Irving wrote the tale of Sleepy Hollow, he called it fiction.
21:28But is it really?
21:29Legends of horsemen clad in black and headless crop up everywhere,
21:34from Ireland to Germany to America to India.
21:37In some tales, the horseman is either death itself or death's servant.
21:42But at other times, it is a heroic figure,
21:45such as in Germany, where he blows his horn, don't ask how,
21:49to warn hunters of danger or seeks out revenge on those who have committed serious crimes.
21:55But perhaps the most famous headless horseman is the ghastly villain
21:59of Washington Irving's 1820 short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,
22:04where a headless rider chases off the schoolmaster Ichabod Crane on a dark night.
22:10Or goes on a murder spree, like in the Tim Burton adaptation.
22:14Your choice.
22:15Do you have any personal ghost stories you want to share?
22:19Let us know in the comments below.
22:21The house is very peculiar.
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