Creepy Encounters With Underground Humanoid Monsters

There is perhaps no creepier place than a long, winding tunnel or cave leading off into the darkness into the confines of the earth. It instills some sort of primal dread in us, a fear we cannot escape, and leaves us to wonder just where that dim passageway leads and what things lie within it. Of course considering the spooky nature of the tunnels, caverns, sewers, and other subterranean places of our world there are bound to be tales of something weird pacing about in those places beneath our feet, and there are plenty. Some of the most spectacular and bizarre of reports of underground monsters have to do with beings and beasts that are somewhat humanoid in nature, prowling about down there in the depths and beyond our understanding.

A very odd case of something odd lurking in dank underground tunnels has sort of an urban legend vibe to it, but is persistent enough to warrant a look. For this one we go to the U.S. state of South Carolina, deep down into the service tunnels that spread out under the the University of South Carolina, some of which date back to the 1800s, and which have long been said to be the haunt of something less than human. Sightings of something bizarre lurking down there begin in November of 1949, when a student of the university by the name of Christopher Nichols was walking along in front of Longstreet Theatre one evening when he was startled by a humanoid figure wearing a “silver suit,” who crossed the street, opened a manhole cover, and disappeared down into the tunnels below. When it hit the school newspaper, The Gamecock, they called it the “Sewer Man,” but this would not be the last sighting of whatever it was.

In April of 1950, a police officer was in the area when he had a rather frightening encounter of his own. As he went about his patrol in the same vicinity of the original sighing, he came across a pile of what looked like the discarded remains of dead chickens, still bloody, that had been mauled and mutilated by some animal. As he ran his flashlight over the scene, the beam caught the sight of a hunched over figure decked out in a silver suit in the shadows, which was described as having grey skin and being grotesque in appearance, and most oddly of all the officer reported that the thing had a third eye right in the center of its forehead. The humanoid creature allegedly scowled at the police officer and scurried down into the tunnel system below, leaving behind its macabre stash of mangled chickens.

The strange denizen of the tunnels would gain the name “The Third Eye Man,” and sightings would continue into the 1960s and 70s, with one particularly harrowing report describing the thing charging a group of university fraternity members with a lead pipe and seemingly murderous intent. With all of the reports coming in of some possibly deranged psychopath prowling the area the tunnels were thoroughly searched to find not a trace of what was being reported. In order to be safe, the tunnels were mostly sealed off from the outside world, but there are enough ways to get in for adventurous curiosity seekers, and there have supposedly been sightings of the Third Eye Man right up to the present. Considering that there is very little to verify these tales there is the distinct possibility that this is all an urban legend, but I would still stay away from those tunnels if I were you. What is this bizarre abomination? Who knows?

A very strange account with some other sort of humanoid comes from 1978 in Toronto, Canada. Here within the dark confines of the various networks of tunnels and caves under this sprawling metropolis, a 51-year-old man known only as Ernest had a strange and frightening encounter in August of that year. The witness claims that he had been out searching the neighborhood for a missing kitten from a litter he had been raising with his wife, when he had stumbled across a tunnel entrance and decided to get a flashlight and investigate where it led, perhaps to even find his missing cat in the process. He claims that he penetrated around 10 feet into the murk and suddenly came across a creature that looked somewhat like a long and thin monkey around 3-feet in height, with large teeth and covered in grey fur. The unsettling eyes which peered out of the darkness from deep sockets were described as being bright orange and slanted, and to make the whole ordeal even more horrific, Ernest reported that the creature actually spoke to him. He would say of the odd events:

I saw a living nightmare that I’ll never forget. It said, ‘Go away, go away,’ in a hissing voice. Then it took off down a long tunnel off to the side. I got out of there as fast as I could. I was shaking with fear.