"It's not just the wind. It's not all in your head. And it's definitely something to worry about."
Hush, little baby, don't say a word,
And never mind that noise you heard
It's just the beast under your bed
In your closet, in your head!
And never mind that noise you heard
It's just the beast under your bed
In your closet, in your head!
— Metallica, "Enter Sandman"
"My mommy always said there were no monsters... no real ones. But there are, aren't there?"
— Newt, Aliens
"There's a monster outside my room, can I have a glass of water?"
— Bo, Signs
Have you run your fingers down the wall?
Have you felt your neck skin crawl
As you're searching for the light?
Sometimes, when you're scared to take a look
At the corner of the room
You sense that something's watching you
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a constant fear that something's always near
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a phobia that someone's always there
Have you felt your neck skin crawl
As you're searching for the light?
Sometimes, when you're scared to take a look
At the corner of the room
You sense that something's watching you
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a constant fear that something's always near
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a phobia that someone's always there
— Iron Maiden, "Fear of the Dark"
It's always best when the light is off
it's always better on the outside
Fifteen blows to the back of your head
Fifteen blows to your mind
So tuck the kids in safe tonight
Shut the eyes in the cupboard
I got the smell of a local man
Who's got the loneliest feeling.
it's always better on the outside
Fifteen blows to the back of your head
Fifteen blows to your mind
So tuck the kids in safe tonight
Shut the eyes in the cupboard
I got the smell of a local man
Who's got the loneliest feeling.
— Radiohead, "Climbing Up the Walls"
Something moves within the night
That is not good and is not right.
That is not good and is not right.
— Dean Koontz, The Book of Counted Sorrows
At night, when I go to bed, I still am at pains to be sure that my legs are under the blanket after the lights go out. I'm not a child any more but... I don't like to sleep with one leg sticking out. Because if a cool hand ever reached out from under the bed and grasped my ankle, I might scream. Yes, I might scream to wake the dead. That sort of thing doesn't happen, of course, and we all know that. In the stories that follow you will encounter all manner of night creatures; vampires, demon lovers, a thing that lives in the closet, all sorts of other terrors. None of them are real. The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real. I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.
— Stephen King, foreword for Night Shift
Children, have you ever met the Boogeyman before?
No, of course you haven't, for you're much too good I'm sure.
No, of course you haven't, for you're much too good I'm sure.
Don't you be afraid of him, if he should visit you.
He's a great big coward, so I'll tell you what to do:
He's a great big coward, so I'll tell you what to do:
Hush-Hush-Hush,
here comes the Boogeyman!
Don't let him come too close to you
he'll catch you if he can.
Just pretend, that you're a crocodile,
and you will find that Boogeyman will
run away a mile.
here comes the Boogeyman!
Don't let him come too close to you
he'll catch you if he can.
Just pretend, that you're a crocodile,
and you will find that Boogeyman will
run away a mile.
Say Shoo-Shoo,
and stick him with a pin!
Boogeyman will very nearly jump out of his skin.
and stick him with a pin!
Boogeyman will very nearly jump out of his skin.
Say Buzz-Buzz,
just like the wasp that stings,
Boogeyman will think you are an elephant with wings!
just like the wasp that stings,
Boogeyman will think you are an elephant with wings!
Hush-Hush-Hush,
here comes the Boogeyman!
Tell him you got soldiers in your bed,
for he will never guess that they are only made of lead.
here comes the Boogeyman!
Tell him you got soldiers in your bed,
for he will never guess that they are only made of lead.
Say, Hush-Hush!
He'll think that you're asleep.
If you make a lovely snore, away he'll softly creep.
He'll think that you're asleep.
If you make a lovely snore, away he'll softly creep.
Sing this tune, you children one and all,
Boogeyman will run away, he'll
think it's Henry Hall!
Boogeyman will run away, he'll
think it's Henry Hall!
When the shadows of the evening
creep across the sky, and your mommy comes
upstairs to sing a lullaby, tell her that
the Boogeyman no longer frightens you,
Uncle Henry very kindly told you
what to do!
creep across the sky, and your mommy comes
upstairs to sing a lullaby, tell her that
the Boogeyman no longer frightens you,
Uncle Henry very kindly told you
what to do!
Hush-Hush-Hush,
here comes the Boogeyman!
Don't let him come too close to you,
he'll catch you if you can.
here comes the Boogeyman!
Don't let him come too close to you,
he'll catch you if you can.
Just pretend, your teddy bear's a dog!
Then shout out
"Fetch him teddy!"
and he'll hop off like a frog!
Then shout out
"Fetch him teddy!"
and he'll hop off like a frog!
Say "Meeeeeow!"
pretend that you're a cat,
he'll will think you may scratch and
that will make him fall down flat.
pretend that you're a cat,
he'll will think you may scratch and
that will make him fall down flat.
Just pretend he isn't really there,
you will find that Boogeyman will
vanish in thin air.
you will find that Boogeyman will
vanish in thin air.
Here's one way,
to catch him withour fail~
just keep a little salt with you and,
put it on his tail!
to catch him withour fail~
just keep a little salt with you and,
put it on his tail!
— Henry Hall, "Here comes the Boogeyman"
"Little Tommy Daggett. How I loved listening to your sweet prayers every night. And then you'd jump in your bed, so afraid that I was under it... and I was!"
— Lucifer, The Prophecy
The Bogeyman is a particularly loathsome entity, attaching itself like a tick to childish terrors. Its sadism knows no bounds, and those brutalised by it are seldom the same again. Many go on to continue its cycle of abuses, passing on its sickness from the secret world to the mundane one. Beyond our remit. But the creature is in decline. Once it found harbour under every bed, in every cupboard, but now its haunts are few and far between. You have contributed to rooting it out of another.
— Richard Sonnac, The Secret World
The wicked witch, the child-eating troll, the hungry hairy monster, the bogeyman, the wolf, Bloody Mary... the list goes on and on. How many horrors do we inflict upon our children? How many leave permanent psychological scars? How many nights do they lie awake, afraid to move or even put a toe over the mattress, for fear of the thing under the bed? How often has the darkness become a living, breathing thing, hungering for child-flesh? And how often do the parents become the monsters, the feared ones who come to hurt the child?
— Mage: The Ascension - Book of Worlds
They are the things that make children wake screaming, blind with fear, in the middle of the night. They are the things that slip through the cracks under bedroom windows, the things that turn the knobs of bedroom closets and push them open with agonizing slowness, while the children cower under their blankets and pray that the old stories about monsters not being able to touch them through their sheets are true.
They aren't.
— Innocents on Night Terrors
In the light of the fire, I tell them tales of the Sandman, who tears out the eyes of small boys who will not sleep; and of Baba Yaga, the demon witch, who rides in a chariot of old bones and rests her palms on the skulls of children; and of Scylla, who drags sailors into the depths and has an appetite that can never be appeased.
->And I tell them of the Erlking, with his arms of bark and ivy, and his soft, rustling voice, and his gifts to trap the unwary, and his appetites which are so much worse than anything they can imagine. I tell them of his desires, so that they will know him in all his forms, and they will be ready for him when he comes.
->And I tell them of the Erlking, with his arms of bark and ivy, and his soft, rustling voice, and his gifts to trap the unwary, and his appetites which are so much worse than anything they can imagine. I tell them of his desires, so that they will know him in all his forms, and they will be ready for him when he comes.
Parents scare their misbehaving young with tales of a mad creature that shambles tirelessly through the trees at night, turning harmless animals into rabid killers and torturing the trees, forcing them against their will to invade the lands of men and steal naughty children from their beds. Little do they know how true the tales are.
—Warhammer: Beasts of Chaos Army Book (6th edition)
Crickle crackle, wergle thee,
Stray not from the cobweb tree,
Catch my brother or eat my mother,
O Frighty Aggie, sting not me
Stray not from the cobweb tree,
Catch my brother or eat my mother,
O Frighty Aggie, sting not me
I held my breath for a long time but I couldn't hear anything. I think it's waiting for me to fall asleep. But it's not going to wait much longer. It needs to feed, and we both know, I... will be... delicious.
— Molly Finch, What Remains of Edith Finch
Another night deprived of slumber,
Hours passing without number,
My eye trace 'round the room. I lay
Dripping sweat and now quite certain
That tonight the final curtain
Drops upon my life's short precious play.
Hours passing without number,
My eye trace 'round the room. I lay
Dripping sweat and now quite certain
That tonight the final curtain
Drops upon my life's short precious play.
From the darkness, by the closet
Comes a noise, much like a faucet
Makes: a madd'ning drip-drip-dripping sound.
Comes a noise, much like a faucet
Makes: a madd'ning drip-drip-dripping sound.
It seems some ill-proportioned beast,
Anticipating me deceased,
Is drooling poison puddles on the ground.
Anticipating me deceased,
Is drooling poison puddles on the ground.
A can of mace, a forty-five,
Is all I'd need to stay alive,
But no weapon lies within my sight.
Is all I'd need to stay alive,
But no weapon lies within my sight.
Oh my gosh! A shadow's creeping,
Ominous and black, it's seeping
Slowly 'cross a moonlit square of light!
Ominous and black, it's seeping
Slowly 'cross a moonlit square of light!
Suddenly a floorboard creak
Announces the bloodsucking freak
Is here to steal my future years away!
A sulf'rous smell now fills the room
Heralding my imm'nent doom!
A fang gleams in the dark and murky gray!
Announces the bloodsucking freak
Is here to steal my future years away!
A sulf'rous smell now fills the room
Heralding my imm'nent doom!
A fang gleams in the dark and murky gray!
Oh, blood-red eyes and tentacles!
Throbbing, pulsing ventricles!
Mucus-oozing pores and frightful claws!
Throbbing, pulsing ventricles!
Mucus-oozing pores and frightful claws!
Worse, in terms of outright scariness,
Are the suckers multifarious
That grab and force you in its mighty jaws!
This disgusting aberration
Of nature needs no motivation
To devour helpless children in their beds.
Relishing despairing moans,
It chews kids up and sucks their bones,
And dissolves inside its mouth their li'l heads!
Are the suckers multifarious
That grab and force you in its mighty jaws!
This disgusting aberration
Of nature needs no motivation
To devour helpless children in their beds.
Relishing despairing moans,
It chews kids up and sucks their bones,
And dissolves inside its mouth their li'l heads!
— "A Nauseous Nocturne", The Essential Calvin and Hobbes
There’s power in the night. There’s terror in the darkness. Despite all our accumulated history, learning, and experience, we remember. Fading light means more than just the end of another day. Night is when terrible things emerge from their sleep and seek soft flesh and hot blood. Night is when unseen beings with no regard for what our people have built and no place in what we have deemed the natural order look in at our world from outside, and think dark and alien thoughts.
And sometimes, just sometimes, they do things.
—- Harry Dresden, The Dresden Files
Boys and girls, it's nighty night time
Happy J the Clown has a nursery rhyme
It's about, The Boogie Woogie Man
Keep your light on as long as you can
Cause when it cuts off, so does ya head
Boogie Woogie Woogie waits under your bed with a shank - SPAHH! - up through the bottom,
Little Jimmie Jimmie?
Got 'em.
Happy J the Clown has a nursery rhyme
It's about, The Boogie Woogie Man
Keep your light on as long as you can
Cause when it cuts off, so does ya head
Boogie Woogie Woogie waits under your bed with a shank - SPAHH! - up through the bottom,
Little Jimmie Jimmie?
Got 'em.
— Insane Clown Posse, "Boogie Woogie Wu"
You know you saw them, but no one ever listens
They'll be long gone by the time the sun has risen
You feel 'em lurking, hear 'em howling in the shadows
Wreaking havoc on your perfect world
They are the tricking trolls
They got the bell that tolls
Flash at the edge of your sight
They only come out at night!
They'll be long gone by the time the sun has risen
You feel 'em lurking, hear 'em howling in the shadows
Wreaking havoc on your perfect world
They are the tricking trolls
They got the bell that tolls
Flash at the edge of your sight
They only come out at night!
— Lordi, "They Only Come Out at Night"
In most of us, no matter how civilized, there's a nagging little voice, a remnant of the old animal hindbrain, that tells us to keep our feet from hanging over the edge of the bed, 'cos something might take them off at the ankle.
The monster under the bed.
We don't know much about the monster under the bed. It seems to be limited to beds and the occasional fold-out couch. No one fears the monster under the ottoman.
You don't have to see it. You can feel that it's there.
The monster under the bed.
We don't know much about the monster under the bed. It seems to be limited to beds and the occasional fold-out couch. No one fears the monster under the ottoman.
You don't have to see it. You can feel that it's there.
When I was little I used to read before I slept at night. And I read by the light of a lamp clipped to my headboard. Stark white, and bright, against the darkness of my room.
I dreaded turning it off.
What if I reached out…
…just past the edge of the bed
and SOMETHING, waiting there,
GRABBED ME and pulled me down, into the DARK
I dreaded turning it off.
What if I reached out…
…just past the edge of the bed
and SOMETHING, waiting there,
GRABBED ME and pulled me down, into the DARK
— Through the Woods, "An Introduction"
"The battle was so long that in 1958 the government had to make a truce. Benito Juarez agreed with the snowman that he could live in a cold-storage container with one condition - he could only go out at night and could only take the children who were not lying down after 8:00."
— Mum, The ABCs of Death
"Bogeyman, get off the roof
Let this boy sleep peacefully"
Let this boy sleep peacefully"
Sleep baby, that the Cuca is coming to get you
Dad went to the farm, mom went to work"
Dad went to the farm, mom went to work"
— Brazilian Nursery Rhymes
Don't go in there, you'll become one
Freaky creatures – monster party!
Eyes of yellow, scales and feathers
Tails and tethers – turn the lights off!
Bend the nightmare, you control it
Artful dodger – easy does it!
Shut the closet, get under the covers
Snakes and lovers – turn the lights off!
Freaky creatures – monster party!
Eyes of yellow, scales and feathers
Tails and tethers – turn the lights off!
Bend the nightmare, you control it
Artful dodger – easy does it!
Shut the closet, get under the covers
Snakes and lovers – turn the lights off!
—Tally Hall, "Turn the Lights Off"
"There's a... m-m-m-mo-monster in my room!"
—Princess, Little Princess, "I Don't Want to Go to Bed"
"And there's probably something in your closet."
—Gru, Despicable Me
"It is all dark. Some people are afraid of the dark. Isn't that silly? Oh, it's silly. Some people think that just because it is dark there are scary... *(nervously)* things around! Spooky things... sneaking around in the dark. But, uh, *(nervous chuckle)*, 'course that... there are not, y'know, there are not... There are not... There ARE NOT!... Maybe I'd better turn on the light and show you."
—Grover, Sesame Street
"I heard a growly noise! Maybe there's a monster hiding under the bed!"
—Princess, Little Princess, "I Want Baked Beans" (actually, her stomach was growling)
Loys Bedoys: See! Look at the scary monster hand.
Roys Bedoys: Oh, Loys. That's just a tree branch. Don't be a scaredy cat. Be brave. Be a big boy. (hears a sound) What's that noise, Loys?!
Loys: (mockingly) Be brave. Be a big boy.
Roys: I... I'm not scared. I'm just asking you what that noise is.
— Roys Bedoys, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Roys Bedoys"
"Don't overdo it. I'm looking for an excuse for sleeping in my parents' bed and to be bleary eyed on some school days but I don't want this eating into time with my friends. But you still have to be scary, or else, what's the point?"
— Wren, Pebble and Wren
Cookie Monster: Over there! Over there! There's a monster! Over there in the corner! Just there! Me see monster in corner!
Ernie: Uh...
Cookie Monster: The corner of the room. Over there!
Ernie: The only monster in this room is you, Cookie Monster.
You know where to find me, honey
Hiding under your bed
Better sleep with the light on, sugar
Been awhile since I fed
I'll be your monster, baby
I'll be your monster, baby
No, you won't see me
When the sun is up
I've been lurking in your closet
I'm waiting for you, buttercup
What are you afraid of, sweetie?
What's put the fear into you?
It's just a nightmare
But some dreams do come true
Hiding under your bed
Better sleep with the light on, sugar
Been awhile since I fed
I'll be your monster, baby
I'll be your monster, baby
No, you won't see me
When the sun is up
I've been lurking in your closet
I'm waiting for you, buttercup
What are you afraid of, sweetie?
What's put the fear into you?
It's just a nightmare
But some dreams do come true
— GWAR, "I'll Be Your Monster"
There's a chill in the air
You hear a creek on the stairs
You gotta lock all your doors
Is there anybody out ?
They're out to get you
To capture you and make you spell bound
Howling and prowling
You're shivering and quivering
Spell bound
You cannot run
And you cannot hide
Yeah you gotta face it baby things go bump in the night
Where ever you run and where ever you hide
Yeah you gotta face it baby things go bump bump bump in the night
You hear a creek on the stairs
You gotta lock all your doors
Is there anybody out ?
They're out to get you
To capture you and make you spell bound
Howling and prowling
You're shivering and quivering
Spell bound
You cannot run
And you cannot hide
Yeah you gotta face it baby things go bump in the night
Where ever you run and where ever you hide
Yeah you gotta face it baby things go bump bump bump in the night
— Allstars, "Bump in the Night"
