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Perhaps your introduction to the Boogeyman, like many other kids, was through watching Halloween movies that played every October, or maybe it was simply just because dark rooms are way too scary! Either way, as a kid, it’s hard to escape the fear that something might be lurking under your bed or between the open cracks in your closet door as you try to fall asleep.
But what is the boogeyman, exactly? Like, where did the story even come from? In my opinion, it does not have a real consistent shape or form, but just represents a terrifying entity that comes out in the dark and is, obviously, deeply SCARY!
Creepy and dark folk stories have been used for centuries as a way to teach children morals and scare them into behaving. Almost every culture seems to have their own version of this creature, but one tie that binds them all is the use of the stories as a tool to scare children into behaving.
The boogeyman has such a large global impact, it is difficult to determine which country told the first tales of this monster. Hence, it's nearly impossible to pin down this creature's exact origins. This doesn’t change the fact that stays certain - the boogeyman loves to lurk in the shadows of the night and its main victims are disobedient children who don’t listen to their parents.
What’s both, fascinating and terrifying about the boogeyman is that it has no defined agreed-upon appearance. While everyone knows the term, no one has a clear idea of what it looks like, which sets it apart from other mythical creatures, who are generally defined by physical traits. As I like to think of it, the boogeyman is “just a formless personification of fear”. It can be anything the fear in you makes it to be.
In my culture, there are various myths on creatures that lurk around in the dark shadows of the night or even creatures that can only be seen by children. So since I was a neurotically anxious child, thankfully my parents knew better than to make things worse by threatening me with made-up monsters. But somehow, the boogeyman concept of being unreasonably afraid of areas like; under the bed, closets or the dark areas in my bedroom, made it into my psyche anyway.
Everyone has fears. And when you’re a kid and it’s hard to make sense of them, the boogeyman appears as a personified version of all those fears - one that you cannot hide nor possibly escape from. Which is perhaps why the myth stays to remain the creepiest of them all.
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