How folklore from around the world has spawned the monsters we fear
Popcorn bunting and spooky Halloween masks have long been a part of Western culture, but the roots of horror go much deeper.
World folklore - from India to Laos, from Native America to Africa - is at the heart of many iconic horror films.
As The Conversation notes, it is myths, legends and spiritual imagery from different cultures that shape the images of monsters we still fear today.
Freddy Krueger from the iconic Nightmare on Elm Street series is not just fiction. His prototype was the evil spirit dab tsog from the beliefs of the Hmong people of Laos. In the 1980s in the U.S. among men from this diaspora recorded mysterious cases of sudden death in sleep - the diagnosis sounded like Sudden Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS).
The Hmong attributed it to attacks by dab tsog, a spirit causing suffocation and sleep paralysis. Stories about the spirit inspired director Wes Craven to create a horror film in which sleep becomes a death trap.
The legend of the wendigo, a man-eating spirit from the folklore of the Algonquin tribes of North America, was the basis for the film Antlers. In the myth, the wendigo is not only a monster but also a moral warning: he punishes greed, destruction of the natural balance and selfishness.
Director Scott Cooper showed how this ancient creature becomes a reflection of modern fears - drug addiction, poverty, violence and environmental destruction.
The film His House is about refugees from South Sudan trying to start a new life in England. But along with them to their new home comes Apeth, a witch from the folklore of the Dinka people.
Apeth feeds on guilt, destroys prosperity and "eats" luck. In the film, the myth becomes a metaphor for post-traumatic syndrome and cultural isolation.
In Ono lives an intra-Indian-Americanschoolgirl Samidha tries to forget her origins in order to fit into American society. But she is confronted by an ancient pishacha, a demon from Hindu lore that feeds on fear, shame, and anger.
When Samidhi's friend releases the pishacha from a glass jar, a struggle begins, not only with the monster, but also with an internal conflict of identity. The monster becomes the epitome of detachment from one's roots and non-acceptance of self.
Horror has long ceased to be a genre for the sake of "scares". It has become a tool of social analysis that explores trauma, anxiety and historical guilt. As the author of the piece, Amala Poli, points out, horrific creatures from different cultures - dab tsog, apeth, wendigo, pishacha - give us a universal language of fear.
"Monsters on screen are not just fantasies. They are reflections of real anxieties: greed, isolation, guilt, loss of home," writes Poli.