5 Spookiest Ghost-Type Pokédex Entries From Gens 6, 7 & 8

The power of Christ compels these guys to chill.

Gourgeist
Gourgeist

Pokémon, within the confines of the video games and the TV shows, are an adorable empire of moneymakers. In the context of their own universe, however, they are beyond terrifying. Imagine living in a world where every bug isn’t only at least the size of a toddler, but they have superpowers. Or where you can just be living your life, only for a “rock snake” the size of an 18-wheeler to come breaching through your bedroom floor like a killer beanstalk.

There are so many creatures, almost 900, and not all of them are going to be benign. Certain types, like Psychic, Bug, Fairy, and Poison lend themselves to being scary even without thinking about the fact that the target demographic for the franchise is age ten. But those types don’t hold a candle to how frightening Ghost-types can be.

It seems as though every single Ghost-type’s actions or origins are inherently horrifying. Because of that, Ghost-types are usually the go-to for people analyzing terrifying Pokédex entries. I’ll reach into that haunted well – but not the way it’s normally done.

Here are several specters from the most recent Gens and games that may be overlooked in favor of more popular choices. There will be no Gengars, Mimikyus, or Phantumps here. Not because they don’t deserve the spotlight, but because in most Pokémon circles they are the ones that get talked about the most. But there are so many more horrors to unearth this spooky season just in time for the Crown Tundra DLC later this month.

 

5. Sandyghast & Pallosand

Kicking off with an evolution set that is the most popular of those on this list for the wrong reasons. With the Hawaii-themed island of Alola in Gen 7’s Pokémon Sun and Moon, a creature based on beach sand seemed perfect. What people didn’t expect was it being a goofy sandcastle looking Ghost-type.

So Sandyghast was ridiculed for its design, but several of its Pokédex entries indicate it should not be messed with. If touched, it will take control of the person touching it. This thing is made of sand. On an island, which is basically one big beach. At some point, you will touch it and it will take you over. Moreover, it looks like a sandcastle, so at some point a child will want to touch it.

How can that get worse? With its evolution, Pallosand, who doesn’t just take control of the people who touch it, but sucks the life out of them. Specifically, its entry from Ultra Moon says that it whips up sandstorms to stop enemies in their tracks, only to drain away their vitality. The waters of the Pokémon world aren’t exactly friendly places in and of themselves, but if you are so unlucky as to come ashore to the sands, you may well be trapped in a freak storm only to be left a lifeless husk. All because you people made fun of a silly looking sandcastle.

 

4. Runerigus

The evolution of the Galar region version of Yamask, Runerigus looks like a ghost snake that possessed desecrated ruins. That’s a terrifying description without even talking about its prior form, Yamask, who’s based on the concept of death masks. It already had a scary evolution, the sarcophagus themed Cofagrigus, a pharaoh’s tomb with ghost arms. Some sicko at Game Freak decided nah, that wasn’t enough, make another one, and make it super difficult to evolve to boot.

Runerigus’ body is in fact made of old ruins. According to its Pokémon Shield dex entry, if you touch said ruins or the shadowy body behind it, you get to see the memories of those ruins. That may not immediately seem spooky to most people, but considering how long ancient artifacts have been around and just how much they’ve seen, who knows what will invade your mind.

Considering how people love to touch old-looking ruins, it is also anyone’s guess how many people this creature has paralyzed with “I’ve seen too much” knowledge. Also, it looks like it’s in pain, as if the Pokémon itself is perpetually horrified by what it sees.

 

3. Dhelmise

One of, if not the most hideous Pokémon designs of all time, Dhelmise is basically a possessed anchor. I remember the first time I found it while fishing in Pokémon Sun and Moon and being completely confused by its disorienting design, which only adds to its spook factor. As for its origins, according to its Pokémon Sword entry, it is born from seaweed coming into contact with the remains of a sunken ship.

The seaweed gives it the look that it’s constantly decaying, but this Pokémon also gives some nightmare fuel the more you think how many of these things there are. Seaweed is everywhere and sunken ships happen the world over, the topics of an incalculable number of ghost stories themselves.

Combine that with a creature that basically uses its seaweed as tentacles to pull prey deep underwater, making it an iron undead giant squid, and you have not only a terrifying creature, but one that could be lurking literally anywhere a ship has been.

Luckily for us, Dhelmise seems to only have an appetite for large prey, like Wailord. But considering how rare Wailord are and how numerous Dhelmise could be, there might not be enough ideal prey to go around. It wouldn’t be out of the evolutionary norm for them to look to alternate forms of nutrition like, say, a casual human swimmer.

 

2. Blacephalon

What’s worse than your regular, traditional evil clown? How about an evil alien clown from god-knows-what dimension whose head explodes at will and as you try to recover in the fiery wake, it saps your soul for nutrients? I give you Blacephalon, the closet thing Pokémon has to The Joker.

This one is cheating a little bit because Blacephalon is an Ultra Beast, a string of creatures from Pokémon Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon who entered into our world through dimensional rifts and wormholes. In theory, they range anywhere from aliens to simply Pokémon from entire other worlds.

No matter the case, they are all terrifying because nothing in our universe has defenses for them, so they run amok and the only reason they don’t take over the island of Alola and the world is because demi-gods fight them off. But even then, they still can’t finish them.

Blacephalon is a Pokémon Ultra Sun exclusive monster who looks like the child of a circus performer and a dandelion. It didn’t get much attention being a version exclusive to the lukewarm received Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, but man it deserves a bigger audience.

Its Pokémon Sun Pokédex entry tells us it slithers – not walks, slithers – towards unsuspecting people and then triggers the explosion of its own head. The Ultra Moon dex entry gives us the motive, stating that it takes advantage of its opponents’ surprise to ‘rob them of their vitality.’

And I thought it couldn’t get any worse than Stephen King’s It and those exploding blood balloons.

 

1. Gourgeist

Most of the Pokémon on this list are reasonably scary and they look the part, so hearing that they have some kind of horrible origins or behaviors kind of fills the mold. Gourgeist’s adorable design and motions are a lure into how dastardly this creature really is, making it even more frightening than everything else I’ve mentioned here.

The terror is magnified when, like any good ghost story, you have to put together all the pieces of the lore little by little. I had to play the role of paranormal investigator to gather this thing’s entire ghastly tale.

As stated, Gourgeist looks quite cute – like a large squash mixed with a witch’s broom and a jack-o-lantern. This adorableness gives way to its Pokémon X dex entry, stating that they wander into towns on new moon nights, singing. Anyone who hears their song is instantly cursed. Add this to the Pokémon Shield entry of its “Average Size” – oh yeah, these things come in four different sizes of terror – that they come knocking and whoever opens the door gets swept to the afterlife.

Piling on, the “Average Size” entry for Pokémon Sword adds that the song it sings is actually the wails of spirits suffering in the afterlife. Who would fall for these charms, you may ask? Well Gourgeist has all demographics covered. Its Sword “Small Size” entry states that it pretends to be a child to trick adults, while Sword’s “Large Size” says it pretends to be an adult to lure in small children. Both parties get dragged off to the land of the dead.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Sword entry for the “Super Size” variety states that it isn’t picky and will just forcefully drag whoever the hell it wants to the hereafter. To wrap all that up, we’ve got the Pokémon Y entry telling us that once it has prey in the clutches of its hairlike arms, Gourgeist will keep singing, joyfully, as it watches them suffer.

So, to recap: Gourgeist can wander into a random town once a month singing a cursed song and knock on your door. If you are foolish enough to answer it – which you may because you think it’s a child in need or an adult who needs help – it will whisk you away.

Or, if it’s large enough, it will pull you from your home no matter what because it has chosen you. Then, as it drags you to its lair with its hairlike clutches, it will continually sing to you, laughing at your anguish until you fade into the next life. On the next new moon, it will ambush another town with a “song” that could very well be made of your final cries of torment being used to start the cycle of suffering all over again.

What a wonderful, nightmare-riddled franchise for all ages.

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