Spooky Legendary Creatures from Southeast Asia That Will Absolutely Terrify You

They make vampires and werewolves look like complete amateurs.

Years ago, a friend of mine told me that she nearly fainted one night while looking for her missing cat, Polka. She found the tawny feline with it’s fur all puffed up, hissing hysterically at something in one of the trees along the quiet, dimly-lit road near their secluded village house. The cat kept on hissing and struggling when she scooped him up in her arms. Something was not right.

The next thing that happened made her blood run cold. She had made the mistake of peering up as the tree, trying to see what her cat was so frightened of.

Suddenly, a lone slender figure looking like a woman wearing a long, pale-green dress suddenly poked her head out from a mass of leaves on one of the branches. It was too dark to make out what she looked like, but my friend remembered her long black hair and glowing bright eyes.

“Her eyes looked demonic”, she would later say. “I just wanted to run home, lock all the doors and hide!”

For an eerie minute or so, the figure looked at her and her hissing cat. Then, as if satisfied that my friend and stressed-out Polka were no threat to her, she made a quick leap out of the tree and then, incredibly, flew off into the night.

Yes, she flew. My friend later said it was more like a quick glide, her long hair and green dress were trailing in the night wind. The creature then simply disappeared in the darkness.

When I asked her if she knew what she had seen, she said “yes”.

She said she had seen a langsuir, a type of Malaysian vampire believed to prey on the blood of infants. She insisted that the languir lived inside the fronds of a type of parasitic fern that grew on tall trees, nesting inside them like monstrous birds. And coincidentally that particular tree where she had seen the flying humanoid thing indeed had a large parasitic fern growing on its highest branch.

She never saw it again, but avoided leaving her house alone at night. She also made it a point to avoid that particular tree like the plague.

Growing up with such a long tradition of spooky tales, I’ve always been fascinated by how they looked. Here are some of the scariest creatures from Malaysian (and in fact, Southeast Asian) folklore. With a few of my own creepy artistic twists, of course.

The Langsuir

Believed to be the ghost of a woman who died of grief and shock after learning that her baby had been stillborn, this entity is supposed to crave the blood of newborn babies, perhaps in revenge for her own lost child.

She is supposed to look like an attractive woman with long hair reaching her ankles, wearing a green dress. Her nails are long and sharp and she also has the ability to transform into an owl or other nocturnal bird.

But the freakiest thing would be her feeding technique.

A langsuir has a hole at the nape of her neck (some say it is a mouth complete with sharp teeth) usually covered by her long tresses. She uses this to feed on the blood of newborns.

I envisioned her slightly differently, even more menacing with an actual monstrous head and face growing out of from the base her neck.

According to legend, if a langsuir is caught, it can be tamed by first cutting off her hair, then stuffing it into the feeding mouth. She will magically transform into a normal human again, without any memory of her time as a langsuir. In some stories, she might even get married and bear children!

However, like every horror story, there is a but... You see, a langsuir-turned-human must never dance, or else she will revert back into her horrific form and fly off into the night to hunt poor newborn babies once more!

The Tall Spirit

The Tall Spirit is a master of disguise. It primarily haunts wooded areas but can come to torment unfortunate people living in nearby villages. It supposedly looks like a very tall humanoid creature, in fact, so tall that it’s head is literally hidden in the clouds and anyone silly enough to stare up at it will be cursed with having his or her neck stuck in that position forever. Or if they make eye contact, the spirit will strike them blind.

I’ve always imagined it to be more birdlike, with slender legs and a long neck, its head and tail made up of dead men’s body parts.

The Fence Spirit

A teacher of mine from the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia once told me of a legendary spirit or demon from her home region. Supposedly an old wives’ tale told to keep naughty children from playing outside the house after dark, the entity was very long and flat and had the ability to roll itself up like a rug. It had the ability to become invisible, a talent it would put to good use while scaring children.

This creature loved tormenting them by unfurling its long, flattened body and wrapping itself around them, like an invisible barrier. Once trapped, anyone who tries to help the children will bang straight into the invisible creature and simply bounce back, repelled by its tough body.

Only a local shaman or holy man had the power to chase it away, forcing it to free the terrified child.

I always imagined this creature to be more insect-like and the part that wraps around its victims to be more like an organic fence or net.

The floating head and entrails

This one is probably the most horrific vampire you’ll ever meet. Imagine a disembodied woman’s head floating around at night, bathed in an eerie light. Scary, right? Now imagine if that head was not alone, but accompanied by its trailing internal organs: heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, intestines — you name it, all floating behind her like parts of a gruesome jellyfish.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what Malaysians call the penanggalan, also known in Thailand as the kra-sue.

Deriving from the Malay word for “detach” or “remove” (since the icky parts all detach themselves from their body) it supposedly resembles a normal woman by day. But at night, her head and entrails detach themselves and fly about in search of fresh blood. This vampire loves the blood of pregnant mothers and newborns, and is also attracted to the scent of menstrual blood.

Almost every country in Southeast Asia has a legend about this creature which makes you wonder, right?

The origins of this vampire are varied as are the legends on how to defeat her, but they generally involve a human woman practicing black magic when something goes wrong and she ends up becoming this thing.

In my illustration, I decided to go against the traditional style of depicting female spirits with long black hair and opted for a bald look. Also, instead of having bloody entrails floating behind her, I decided to give her a translucent jellyfish body, so she looks less revolting from a distance. But look closely and you’ll see right through her, pulsating organs and all.

The Breast Spirit (yes, seriously)

Another demonic entity that preys on naughty children especially boys, this creatures haunts dark corridors and abandoned buildings. Known as the breast ghost, she resembles a naked, ugly hag with massive breasts extending almost to the ground.

She conveniently has the ability to transform herself into a beautiful woman with the same bizarre endowments — all for the purpose of attracting curious boys. Once within range, she actually manipulates her breasts like giant tentacles to ensnare her victim. Usually the victim is trapped in the coils of her breasts and is rendered invisible. Trapped forever, his voice can be heard but he himself is invisible to those searching. Meanwhile the hag tortures the boy to death. In other tales, she just strangles him with her tentacle-like breasts, but I always thought an evil entity would be more sadistic than that.

My illustration shows her as looking more bizarre — her breasts are more caterpillar-like and I wanted to make her original form more insectoid-looking (drawing still in progress).

Weretigers and Tiger Spirits

In parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, some families were said to inherit supernatural powers passed down through the generations. One of the most well-known is the power to transform into a tiger or a part-tiger, part-man creature.

Some members of families gifted or cursed with this power supposedly transform into tigers every night (no need for the full moon in these parts). Some weretigers were also believed to be powerful sorcerers with a talent for black magic.

My illustration above is based on the latter belief. The weretiger in the image summons familiar spirits — a snake and a monkey — and wears an enchanted helmet.

Future Projects

I’m currently working on a writing project — an urban fantasy story combining elements of steampunk, traditional European myths (the usual elves, trolls and goblins) and stories from my home country, Malaysia. It would be fun to have the usual elves and fairies battling the likes of these guys, wouldn’t it?