Jon Solo Sebastian 11/13/2026:

Happy Friday the 13th!! Halloween might be over, but that has never stopped me from reading and writing about the “creepy crawlies” all year long, ha ha. This week’s creature is a popular and gross little grave robber and people/corpse eater. The Ghoul dun dun dun!!

It’s early morning. The sun is just barely on the horizon. You’re walking through the cemetery to pay respects to a fallen loved one when you hear strange sounds in the distance. It almost sounds like someone, or something is in pain. Being the good samaritan that you are, you venture off in that direction to see what is going on. Bad idea. You round a cluster of trees as the sound grows louder. As the sun peeks over the horizon in the twilight sky, it illuminates the most disgusting group of creatures you’ve ever seen. They’re all hunched over what is likely a fresh grave, and you quickly discover that the sound you heard that brought you to this area is them chewing on a body. The chewing comes to a halt, and the four undead creatures feast their eyes on their next meal—you.

What is a Ghoul?

Coming from North African and Arabic folklore, ghouls or ghuls, stem from a myth stating they are part of an evil class of jinn, and are believed to be offsprings of the prince of darkness. Before they were classified as flesh-eating grave robbers, they were said to stalk open roads and deserts disguising themselves as attractive women trying to lure travelers off their beaten path. If successful, they would shift back to their normal form, but by then, it was too late for their victim. They would kill and eat their victim and move on to their next hunt. This reminds me of another type of creature I’ve written about before. They’re definitely not the same, but similar in that they are, or disguise themselves, as attractive women that stalk travelers or hunters. Check out my piece on the Baobhan Sith.

“In the West ghouls have no specific image and have been described (by Edgar Allan Poe) as “neither man nor woman…neither brute nor human.” They are thought to assume disguises, to ride on dogs and hares, and to set fires at night to lure travelers away from the main roads.” They typically dwell in dark places like deep in the forests where hikers or hunters might wander, abandoned places, and cemeteries/graveyards. They’ve been known to desecrate fresh graves in order to eat without all the fuss of capturing and killing their prey.

To sum up, a ghoul is a demonic creature that either hunts the living and eats them, or hangs out in graveyards waiting for the unsuspecting victim, or they dig up fresh graves to feed on the recently deceased. Sometimes, the term “ghoul” is used to “describe people who have a fascination with the macabre and grotesque, either as a tongue-in-cheek or an insulting and opprobrious term.” There aren’t any specific details as far as their appearance goes, but think of them as being zombie-like, though their “demon form” is more like something similar to the pictures below.

Characteristics of Ghouls

1. Corpse-like creatures
2. Undead genre like zombies and vampires; Though they’re more in line with vampires because they aren’t mindless creatures. They are intelligent and capable of manipulating the living, whereas zombies only focus is to feed on flesh.
3. Glowing Eyes
4. Shape-Shifting
5. They like places where the dead lie; cemetery’s, tombs, battlefields, abandoned towns or villages. These locations also offer a peaceful place for them to reside; aside from when the living enter the area, but the ghouls quickly trade their moments of peace for a welcoming meal entering their domain.

Ghouls in Pop Culture

H.P. Lovecraft

If you’re a fan of horror and literature, you may have first heard of ghouls in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Hound” or The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.

Dungeons and Dragons

Ghouls are a common enemy in the world’s most popular roleplaying game: D&D. They are basically the same as they’re described in Middle Eastern Folklore where they’re undead creatures feeding on flesh, but in D&D, they’re typically described as once being humans that had been cursed or transformed into ghouls by the use of dark magic.

Video Games

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Since I’ve been occasionally playing the remastered version of this game, it is fresh in my brain that ghouls are a common enemy in the game. Side Note: I played and finished this game a few years back, but in a lot of ways, coming back to it feels like a new game; the updated graphics and other bits like combat and such help make it feel that way. Check out the game if you’ve never played it. Anyway, ghouls in The Witcher are similar to the mythos in that they’re undead creatures driven by the insatiable hunger for flesh. They’re found on the battlefields and in cemeteries… often in large-ish packs. They will surround you and gang up on you quickly, so be ready for that.

Other games you may have encountered ghouls are Dark Souls, The Elder Scrolls (although they go by a different name in that game series, the concept is the same), and Ghosts ‘n Goblins… a classic platformer I played as a kid!